Pink Hydrangea

24" x 24", oil on panel

I enjoy painting every dot. They are each a gift to someone else (the viewer) like sharing a piece of gum. I paint them for my own enjoyment, satisfaction, and centering first. They are reduced/concentrated elements of calm even when bouncy. They are complete in themselves, in their own location, suspended alone while part of a group like individuals in society.

Pink Hydrangea is a follow-up to Blue Hydrangea. Rather than a mandala type circular arrangement, it is a diffused square field. The globe form of the flowers is less accentuated in favor of the all over, hovering field. Quadrants advance and recede as do individual dots, activating the eye. Check out my Hydrangea oil pastels, too.

I'd like to draw your attention to the paintings and relief sculpture of Ian Tornay on view at the Bowery Gallery, New York City through March 26th. The press release for the show is as follows:

Ian Tornay paints lush, green landscapes in rural northeastern Pennsylvania and in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. In views of farms and rivers, Tornay paints with energetic brushwork that leads from foreground to sky in uninterrupted rhythms. He focuses our attention on the connections and fluid interplay of the elements: clouds, trees, fields and farm buildings.

For this show, his sixth at the Bowery Gallery, Tornay also presents a series of still lives. In these works, he contemplates the symbolism of each object and the different realms they belong to. Domestic objects, tools and pure geometric elements share the tabletop stage surrounded by dark, theatrical backgrounds. In these elemental compositions, he draws contrasts between permanence and decay, opacity and transparency, organic and man made objects.

Tornay also includes relief sculptures carved in wood. Each piece is carved from a single piece of wood that has been cut apart and rearranged. The jigsaw puzzle arrangements emphasize the connectedness of different objects with each other and with their tabletop environments.

Originally from New York, Ian Tornay lives in Philadelphia and teaches art and interior design at the Delaware College of Art and Design in Wilmington, DE. He was educated as an architect at the Cooper Union, NYC before receiving an MFA in painting from Queens College, NYC. His work has been reviewed in the Philadelphia Inquirer and in The New Republic.

Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11 am to 6 pm. Please contact the gallery for more information or tornayian@gmail.com