Maine Swamp #2
oil on panel 11" x 14"
"Nature is quite generous for providing material for one's imagination.
A work of art is, above all, the celebration of the particular.
This applies to thought as well as practice."
Wolf Kahn
Wolf Kahn is not stating opposites here, though at first reading it may appear so. Instead he is describing the absolute bedrock for any painting worthy of being considered art - the foundation of that 'celebration of the particular' - read as true seeing and not approximating - must be present as the gateway to the artist's imagination and as a tool for reaching the expressive intent. Within the patterns and spaces of this swampy marsh imagining can take flight, buoyed by the discipline of looking and exploring.
That's the fun of it - getting the color and the marks of paint to describe while not dictating - to allow artist and viewer to imagine.
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