Saturday, November 24, 2007

Blink And You Will See

I paint transitive blinks. Open and shut the eyes rapidly to remove distracting detail . This way, economy of paint and information has often a direct relationship to the level of success in my paintings. Rather than offering the viewer a pre-chewed story through a highly detailed image devoid of any chance to improvise, I prefer to challenge - or tease - the viewer to some degree into deciding for themselves what exactly it is that they are looking at. There are a number of obvious clues as guidance, bits of information that determine the general theme of a painting. I personally think my best work is where that amount of information is stripped to the bare minimum. For example in the painting below, one clearly sees a typical landscape. There is what looks like a horizon, a foreground below it and a sky above it. There is a bright disk in the sky; an obscured sun or moon? Are there distant trees on the horizon? And what exactly is going on in the foreground? Is that jagged diagonal line a trail of sand or is it a puddle of water? All are valid assumptions. It does not matter which one is right because it bears no importance. Looking at paintings that bring up questions like that are more interesting to me.


Night oil on canvas 24" X 30" Chris De Dier

2 comments:

Rima said...

hmmm... interesting technique. i think i'll apply it to everyday life too :-)
great blog - i'm gonna have to spend many hours here to catch up. love your artwork and your writing.

Artists With Artitude said...

Hi Chris! Thank you so much for visiting my blog and leaving such a nice comment. As a fellow Austinite, I am also happy that we live in such a vibrant city. You are a real artist. Keep on creating and inspiring us. A bientot!