Stew Henderson -- Color and Line

I began painting on acrylic in the late fall of 2008. My initial interest was to create planes of color with thin stripes that would imply a non-existent depth in the clear surface of the acrylic sheet. Each line is taped, painted then dried before moving to the next stripe. I was attracted to the scratchy edge quality that this method produced. Using vintage frames with black and gold painted glass heightened the color of the stripes and created a viable convergence of old and new.

In separate studies of this approach the stripes act as shapes that hover above a translucent Corplast that is attached to a wood panel. A shallow but tangible depth is created suspending the striped shapes between three different surfaces.

From here I decided to use the transparency of the acrylic sheet to separate and float the bands of color from the wall to create shadow. Very basic geometric shapes in one layer of acrylic were used with equally spaced lines of color. The next step was to overlap two layers of acrylic sheets that had similar thickness stripes but going in opposing direction, then slightly separating them with clear vinyl spacers. At this point color became crucial to the depth that was created by separating the two layers. To enhance the illusion of space between these pieces it was important to place warm color stripes above the cooler panels. To shorten the depth I placed the cool colors above the warm panels. Alternating within the piece the juxtaposition of warm and cold panels produced the undulating imagery that addresses the formal concept in traditional painting of creating the illusion of space.

At this point in the series I began to research the work of other artists that use color, line and geometry. There are many but I recalled a wonderful exhibit that I had seen in Madrid in 2007 at the Reina Sophia that featured the works of Josef and Anni Albers together. I looked further into Anni’s weaving produced at the Bauhaus and decided to to see if I could incorporate her motifs with my current efforts. The results are a small group of wood block prints on hand-made paper and an acrylic on acrylic sheet painting entitled “Homage to Anni”.