My solo show at 57W57thArts is up and open for viewing on Wednesday - Saturday, noon- 5p through June 9th. (Please note: the gallery will be closed for a private event on June 4th)
Spring, Yellow Trail and Summer, Yellow Trail
72 colors found during one year on the Yellow Trail, acrylic on polyester resin film, dimensions variable, 2016
Fall, Yellow Trail and Winter, Yellow Trail
detail...
and more details...
The artwork in this gallery is about time. The landscape was used as a time-keeping device. I captured time passing by documenting the change in color within the landscape at the same location (New Berlin, NY) over the course of a year. I think of each painting as a landscape; a pure landscape, reduced to the actual found colors.
Making the work required capturing colors from nature, over one year, and transforming them to paint. I returned to the same trail in the forest. I visited this trail in the spring, summer, fall, and winter. Each time I walked the trail, I took a photo every 100 steps. 18 photos were taken on each walk. One color was selected from each photo to be mixed into a paint color. Once back in the studio, I mixed colors with the aide of a program that interprets the color I select from a photo into a paint formula. There are 72 distinct colors marking this one year of time.
Each season is represented as an individual painting and the entire year as the installation on the floor. Spring and Summer are on the left, Fall and Winter on the right, as you face the floor installation “72 colors found during one year on the Yellow Trail”
As I worked on this project I was reminded of Josef Albers' statement: "There is a profound harmony in the immeasurable spectrum of color."
Debra Ramsay
2016