Betty Nolan
September 28 2018
This exhibition has its title because leaving the artistic world of observed reality is always an adventure, rather like trapeze work without a net. Process based, the coloured marks demand a counterweight, what Hans Hoffman called the “push and pull “of abstract painting.
This is my fourth abstract show and to get me started I appropriated some works by Tintoretto, my favourite Mannerist painter from Venice, whose busy, top heavy works give the impression that the artist is in a hurry. Which is the case here as well. Through this process I was able to develop and refine some personal imagery that I have used before; the path, the cloud, the drape and the book. These are often used with great marks that are the sweep of the arm, a free movement developed by many years of life drawing.
Each work is highly coloured as I am interested in not only the effects of chroma but the history of colour. The many layers in the paintings take advantage of transparent colour used against opacity and use wonderful obscure hues such as geranium.
