One of the greatest accomplishments in art history has been the ability to create works on flat surfaces that show perspectives in three-dimensions. In this special editorial, we discover TOAF61 artists creating 2D works that are anything but flat. These artists excel in using flat planes of contrasting colour, perspective, and other creative techniques to extend their artwork into space.
Rhythmic Reflections
Love Notes – Self Reflection, Lindsay Chambers, 2021, Oil on canvas, 24 x 24 inch round canvas
Lindsay creates highly realistic paintings based on hand-made crumpled paper sculptures. Works like Love Notes – Self Reflection help us to explore the delicate and significant presence of paper in our lives. In this piece by Lindsay, the rippled reflection emphasizes the crumbled paper as the point of focus for the painting. The viewer is left with the perception of depth; the paper exists at the bottom of a circular drain, or even in the eye of a witness. By creating a visual “space between realism and abstraction”, Lindsay’s representation provides the painting with a sense of rhythmic emotion.
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The Sun Reaches Out to Us!
Here Comes the Sun, Ashley Toner, 2021, Acrylic painting, 40 x 30 inch
Ashley uses palette knives to create vibrant and textured acrylic paintings like Here Comes the Sun. This piece is strengthened by the use of multiple techniques to create a sense of depth. The thick, impasto application of paint makes the tree stand-out to the viewer, and allows the sun’s rays to shine out of the scene. To contrast the bursting foreground, Ashley also renders the painting in a three-point perspective. The viewer can sense that the horizon of the scene converges at a far-away point where the sun shines brightly. Filled with bright colours, Ashley presents an energetic representation of nature that draws the viewer to appreciate the essence of the scene.
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Painting Uncertainty
Allegory of Vacillation, Mahir Siraj, 2022, Acrylic on canvas, 30 x 30 inch
The word vacillation, meaning “uncertainty” or “indecision”, is one of the many personal and social themes presented in Mahir’s work. Using images to reveal messages about memory and meaning, works like Allegory of Vacillation invite the viewer to reflect on the significance of the scene. This painting is balanced by a straight line between the flat planes of red and blue hues, yellow hues on the right side of the canvas, and the green apple existing on both planes. Our eyes move around the canvas to consider the perceived closeness of the bottle and light-switch on the right, compared to the extended perspective of the dark, blue background. Look closely and ask: What is the meaning hidden in this visual separation?
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Colour in Perspective
Rough Seas, Janice Colbert, 2022, Acrylic on birch wood panel, 24 x 18 inch
Janice is an artist and poet creating visually stimulating paintings on birch wood panel. Rough Seas is unique to this editorial because it appears at first to emphasize flatness. In a sense, this is true! Though Janice’s careful consideration of colour theory explains why the viewer may be able to sense a differentiation between the sea in the foreground, the middleground school houses, and umbrellas in the background. Note that the artist makes particular use of warm tones to colour the school houses: this attracts our attention to the middle-ground! To contrast, the cooler tones of the blue sea recede into the panel, creating a visual separation. Janice harmonizes this technique in the blue and yellow umbrellas, presenting the illusion of three-dimensional shapes. All in all, the viewer is engaged by Janice’s thoughtful use of colour.
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Intimately Detailed
Fight or Flight, Sherry Dube, 2022, Acrylic on canvas, 24 x 24 inch
“The beauty I find in nature around me is what inspires my work, & my desire to preserve this vision is what motivates me to create” – Sherry
Sherry creates highly realistic paintings like Fight or Flight using acrylic paint on canvas. In this painting, the viewer can appreciate Sherry’s use of proportion to illustrate perspective. The textured view of the birds and their brown house, compared to the softly rendered green trees communicates that the birds are quite small in proportion to these other figures. The high detail in the wings and heads of the birds also communicates a closeness, as if we are present in the scene. Sherry’s work provides the viewer with a sight that they would not normally have the opportunity to experience; an intimate interaction between birds in flight.
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These works are available at #TOAF61!
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