Thursday, July 16, 2009
Elizabeth Osborne
I was SO lucky! Last week I dropped in on the PafA exhibition of Elizabeth Osborne: THE COLOR OF LIGHT. I have never understood/enjoyed/appreciated abstract art, but have become convinced that something more than straightforward realism is required to make satisfying art. So to find Osborne using Color Field techniques with included representational images and references... with all her startling color, transparency and vibrancy, I was absolutely blown away.
With that experience fresh in my mind, I signed up for a late summer course in Color Field Painting with Kassem Amoudi, who seems to be the leading - or at least one of the leading - exponents of CFP at PafA. Of course, that means I have to assemble all the supplies to work in acrylic. More stuff to crowd my small apartment and keep more or less organized. And, he wants us to work on large canvases, which is a whole additional storage problem.
With that background, I went back to PafA to see the concurrent exhibiton of Sidney Goodman. But just as I walked in, there was Elizabeth Osborne HERSELF, just starting a tour of the exhibition for several collectors of her work who had loaned paintings for this exhibition. So I got to hear her talking about her paintings, how she did them, why she did them, how she changed her style again and again, and her experiences working with oils, acrylic, and watercolors. Even asked her a few questions. A FABULOUS experience!
E.O. has always been closely associated with PafA and still teaches a course there, but it isn't open to Continuing Ed students like me. But I had a chance to tell her how much I loved her work and wanted to enroll/audit/sit-in/hide behind the door in her class. Turns out that she is on sabbatical this fall, but will be teaching again in January and maybe.... Just maybe....
With that experience fresh in my mind, I signed up for a late summer course in Color Field Painting with Kassem Amoudi, who seems to be the leading - or at least one of the leading - exponents of CFP at PafA. Of course, that means I have to assemble all the supplies to work in acrylic. More stuff to crowd my small apartment and keep more or less organized. And, he wants us to work on large canvases, which is a whole additional storage problem.
With that background, I went back to PafA to see the concurrent exhibiton of Sidney Goodman. But just as I walked in, there was Elizabeth Osborne HERSELF, just starting a tour of the exhibition for several collectors of her work who had loaned paintings for this exhibition. So I got to hear her talking about her paintings, how she did them, why she did them, how she changed her style again and again, and her experiences working with oils, acrylic, and watercolors. Even asked her a few questions. A FABULOUS experience!
E.O. has always been closely associated with PafA and still teaches a course there, but it isn't open to Continuing Ed students like me. But I had a chance to tell her how much I loved her work and wanted to enroll/audit/sit-in/hide behind the door in her class. Turns out that she is on sabbatical this fall, but will be teaching again in January and maybe.... Just maybe....
