Colour field painting

Untitled (Prismacolor)


In 1987 I graduated with a bachelor of science, but took another semester. One course was art studio. The instructor, a colourist, always wore complimentary colours like blue and orange. He told me I was a colourist, too.

Sometimes I use black-and-white photography for specific expressions, but can't restrain myself for long from the sensuality of colour.

At AGO on Friday I had mixed feelings about The Shape of Colour. The exhibit explored colour field painting, a 1960s offshoot of Abstract Expressionism championed by artists like Helen Frankenthaler and Jules Olitski. It lasted a decade.

Many works were too minimalist or arcane to engage my aesthetic sense. But the painting Echo (1964) by Canadian artist William Perehudoff reminded me strikingly of some of my own abstract drawings, particularly Waterspout (1999).

I had wanted to create a series.

In June I bought two small sketch books, 24 pages each, challenging myself to fill them this summer: unrealistic perhaps, but a useful provocation. I've made three drawings so far, two inspired by colour field painting. I'm also having fun with a gift dakoopst bought at the gallery, The Colour Game: a set of die-cut colour panels one can combine in multitudinous ways.





Waterspout 2 (Prismacolor)


A few colour field artists whose art intrigued me:

• Adolph Gottlieb
• Helen Frankenthaler (Tales of Genji III)
• Clyfford Still
• Jules Olitski
• Jack Bush
• Kenneth Noland
• William Perehudoff
• Sol LeWitt
• Robert Irwin
• Sam Gilliam
• Polly Apfelbaum
• Peter Halley
• Odili Donald Odita
• Diana Thater