Climate Change
Clare Scrimgeour’s paintings feature control versus chance, raking patterns, light rays weaving patterns among watery courses in a visual symphony of color and shape. Such titles as “Ebb and Flow” and “Red Tide” reference the sea, with brilliant hues alluding to land sea and sky. The texture in the surfaces of the paintings emulates natural processes, and the climatic variations that beset the planet. The artist’s practice is both systematic yet open to the fluidity of the media. Her subliminal anxieties about the consequences of climate change are herein expressed in a series of abstract interpretations, with pointed titles such as “Superpower” and “Meltdown.”
The reality of the picture plane as a two-dimensional surface brings to mind an affinity with the paintings of Hans Hofmann, the great teacher and visionary of the 20th century. He said of painting, “The heavens opened up and what comes down is color, sound, and music.”
Another connection would be the Washington Color School. Paintings such as those by Morris Louis explored the flow and chemistry of paint application in inspired and lyrical ways. Similarly, Scrimgeour’s paintings are visible manifestations of the artist’s touch. These drips, interlacings, and fragments of metal leaf modulate the surface forming accretions and erosions which we can read as metaphors for the impact of climate change.
Not only a “wake-up” call about imminent catastrophe, the splendor of the natural world as a wonderful gift is celebrated in glorious and intense colors. The “new departure” is a self-described foray into emergent art world trends. In the book Art & Fear (David Bayles and Ted Orland, 1993) the authors say about artists, “….carrying within you the seed crystal for your next destination.” I would read this as the goal the artist envisions for each project and subsequent outcome.
I admire Clare’s perseverance to reach this goal of a one-person gallery exhibition in her city of residence, Washington, D.C. She has reached one plateau of many more creative peaks to come.
*Hans Hofmann, essay © William C. Agee
(15 March – 21 April, 2012)
Ameringer McEnery Yohe, New York. Page 9
Lenore D. Miller, Director and Chief Curator,
University Art Galleries
George Washington University
Washington, D.C. 2012
Clare Scrimgeour’s paintings feature control versus chance, raking patterns, light rays weaving patterns among watery courses in a visual symphony of color and shape. Such titles as “Ebb and Flow” and “Red Tide” reference the sea, with brilliant hues alluding to land sea and sky. The texture in the surfaces of the paintings emulates natural processes, and the climatic variations that beset the planet. The artist’s practice is both systematic yet open to the fluidity of the media. Her subliminal anxieties about the consequences of climate change are herein expressed in a series of abstract interpretations, with pointed titles such as “Superpower” and “Meltdown.”
The reality of the picture plane as a two-dimensional surface brings to mind an affinity with the paintings of Hans Hofmann, the great teacher and visionary of the 20th century. He said of painting, “The heavens opened up and what comes down is color, sound, and music.”
Another connection would be the Washington Color School. Paintings such as those by Morris Louis explored the flow and chemistry of paint application in inspired and lyrical ways. Similarly, Scrimgeour’s paintings are visible manifestations of the artist’s touch. These drips, interlacings, and fragments of metal leaf modulate the surface forming accretions and erosions which we can read as metaphors for the impact of climate change.
Not only a “wake-up” call about imminent catastrophe, the splendor of the natural world as a wonderful gift is celebrated in glorious and intense colors. The “new departure” is a self-described foray into emergent art world trends. In the book Art & Fear (David Bayles and Ted Orland, 1993) the authors say about artists, “….carrying within you the seed crystal for your next destination.” I would read this as the goal the artist envisions for each project and subsequent outcome.
I admire Clare’s perseverance to reach this goal of a one-person gallery exhibition in her city of residence, Washington, D.C. She has reached one plateau of many more creative peaks to come.
*Hans Hofmann, essay © William C. Agee
(15 March – 21 April, 2012)
Ameringer McEnery Yohe, New York. Page 9
Lenore D. Miller, Director and Chief Curator,
University Art Galleries
George Washington University
Washington, D.C. 2012