Helen Frankenthaler, 'Captain's Paradise,' 1917, Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio: Museum Purchase with the aid of funds from the National Endowment for the Arts and two anonymous donors.
A square meter of green is greener than a square centimeter of green. – Paul Gauguin, 1848-1903
Painters have always painted in a huge range of sizes, but painting a large work is pretty challenging.
Helen Frankenthaler (American, 1928-2011) developed her own methods to work large. What became known as “soak and stain” used very fluid oil or acrylic color on an unprimed cotton, and is often credited to her.
Frankenthaler could handle scale with ease, as seen here with Captain’s Paradise (1971, acrylic on canvas, 60” by 156”). Painting to scale requires planning, and also real sense of spontaneity.
Joe Lombardo is one of Columbus’ hardest-working painters, and he has built an ever-growing group of collectors and students. He is a fantastic teacher as well.
His recently completed a suite of large paintings that will be on view at Art Access Gallery in November and December. Lombardo’s distinctive use of color and rich painterly technique are here in full force.
“My recent work is focused on repetition of color and shapes,” Lombardo says. “This creates an all-over, pattern-like composition. … When painting large, the key is scaling up. I have painted large before, but with my most recent study, I feel like I have finally been able to paint a 4’ by 6’ canvas just like I would paint a 5” by 7” canvas.”
Patterns – featuring work by Lombardo as well as Toni Doilney and Paula Rubinstein – is on display at Art Access Nov. 10-Dec. 31.
Michael McEwan teaches oil painting classes in his Summit Street studio. His paintings are available exclusively from Keny Galleries. Learn more at www.michaelmcewan.com.
