WINDOWS OF THE NIGHT/ Earth Paints & Watercolor: A Visionary Abstraction

                                            

                                        

                                             Windows of the Night

                                             1974

                                             by Eric Whollem

                                             earth paints, casein, and watercolor on paper

                                             Private Collection
                                                 Copyright by the artist.

Playing With Space and Texture

In works from this time period, my early twenties, I often would
create a shape and then repeat it, creating visual assemblages of
that defy apparent gravity. (I was twenty-three years old in 1974.)

In the above painting I hoped to create the effect of squashed
blackberries in the mixture of glue, earth, and watercolor that
composes the background. This thick mixture, when wet, was
deeply engraved with a palette knife, creating grooved textural
embellishments.

I was thinking of the community of Berry Creek in the Butte
County foothills when I created this work.

Coarse grains of sand in the earth pigment add a touch of
rough texture.

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Mixed media painting, abstract art, earth paints.