There are stop-and-think shows, funny
shows, interesting shows, some overwrought silly shows and hat-in-hand,
well-meaning shows.
Sally Condon’s 19-piece “In Broad Sunlight” is a
drop-dead-gorgeous show, filled with beautifully crafted oil and wax
paintings, at Matrix Fine Art. Her radiant paintings magically light up
the walls while offering viewers intimate narrative vignettes about life
in Condon’s backyard garden universe.
I have mixed feelings about her latest work. In visual tactility
and sheer juiciness it falls somewhere between the six Rembrandts that
my father visited on rainy Sundays at the Baltimore Museum of Art and
those vanilla ice cream bars on a stick wrapped in frozen orange sherbet
that were my favorite childhood indulgence.
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If you go
WHAT: “In Broad Sunlight,” 19 oil and wax paintings by Sally Condon
WHEN: Through June 9
WHERE: Matrix Fine Art, 3812 E. Central
HOW MUCH: Free. Call 268-8952 |
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In “Blue Note” Condon juxtaposes a creamy orange across the
right-hand two-thirds of the vertically divided composition against a
pale gray area punctuated with a turquoise oval on the lower left. Two
circular forms within rectangles on the right are textured with grid
patterns.
The only darks in the composition run along the vertical divide
between the orange and gray areas. The effect of the dark blue, red,
green and pale yellow vertical stripes of color is to draw the eye away
from the large areas to focus on what becomes a rift between the two
large planes.
In all of Condon’s paintings the details are where the secrets
hide. Most of us think of classical Greek sculpture in terms of pure
white marble or limestone. In reality Greek sculpture was originally
painted in garish bright colors that were softened and muted into normal
flesh tones and hair colors when bathed in unrelenting Mediterranean
sunlight.
Condon is unafraid of sunlight and purposefully allows it to burn
away many of her forms. The remaining islands of structure are the
survivors of the searing solar beacon.
In “Lemon Afternoon” Condon offers small rectilinear sections
made up of dark color and collage elements that float in a pale lemon
yellow void. The beauty of these details is their clear wax overlays
that keep them level with the painted surface.
Condon uses a brayer to apply layers of color to avoid the
distraction of brush strokes. Her technique is similar to the
application of ink on a printing plate.
By building each layer upon the next, she achieves an inner luminosity that captures and rebroadcasts ambient light.
Condon reveals a sense of humor in “Peek,” a vertical composition
of blues and pale yellow that is enhanced with a vertical dark area out
of which peeks a flower with white petals that seems to be shy.
The painting is filled with etched lines and highly detailed
elements that offer depth and richness to the whole. “Peek” is a
stunning piece that includes a bit of scumbled brushwork.
Another vertically composed picture is “Keeping Up” featuring
pink, red, white and green areas floating in pale yellow. At one time we
were all the little kid who was assumed to not be able to keep up with
the bigger kids.
Though Condon may not have had that kind of keeping up in mind, her lovely pictorial evokes the idea.
Her collage materials include leaves, flowers, bits of cloth and
photographs all blended into her compositions under layers of beeswax.
Condon is a gardener and beekeeper. Her materials, ideas and stories
fall readily to hand. Each painting is infused with sunlight, Condon’s
love for nature and a modicum of magic.
http://www.abqjournal.com/main/2012/05/13/living/arts/the-light-is-quite-illuminating.html
