Cynthia Rosen Standing Tall, the Splendor of the Joshua Tree
Returning to making art after a hiatus, I discovered
the glory of the landscape in our magnificent
country and began painting “Plein Air” (painting
outside in fresh air). But rather than catching and
reflecting the beauty of a moment in time and
memory, like many traditional painters, I paint to
portray the ever-changing nature of the landscape
through the use of color and movement. The change
that takes place due to the time of day, the seasons,
and even the process of growth and decay. Given
this alternative focus, I describe my works painted
in the field as „Plein Air with a Twist‟
While painting Standing Tall, the Splendor of
the Joshua Tree, the late afternoon light was
quickly changing, on the wane, soon to be gone. As
a result, the colors of the landscape changed
drastically within a short period of time. In my
painting, these changing colors are portrayed
through the quick placement of paint daubs in a
somewhat expressive application reminiscent of the
Impressionists and Post-Impressionists.
By using the palette knife in conjunction with
the brush, I am able to juxtapose bits of colors and
move them across the surface, allowing them to
both flow and bounce, creating an image that is
often less tangible than the actual landscape. My
use of the red backdrop provides the perfect ground
for many other colors to play against. Given the
changing light, one moment I saw purple in front of
me only to take on an orange cast the next second.
By placing purple next to the orange, I captured
both moments, allowing time to flow through the
work.
Pick a color and follow it. You will find that it
travels across my surface, not like light‟s gradual
and direct path, but in an attempt to catch the color
that was both there one minute and gone the next.
In this way I captured both movement and the
breath of the natural world.
www.cynthiarosenartist.com