Carl Smiths third solo art show at Imagine Art reviewed by Carl Smith
Carl Smiths third solo show at Imagine Art in Austin, Texas December 2015 titled “Mountains, Valleys, Peaks, Trees, Farms, etc.” was not breaking down any painting walls. But these pieces were solidly painted, constructed simply and succinctly with a hint at abstraction and painterly objectivity in their execution.
There were around thirteen of the landscapes in acrylic on canvas, affordably priced and varied in size from around two feet square to six feet square, so yes there was a nice diversity in the sizes. The color planes representing triangular hillsides were colored and outlined in a somewhat obvious way with black lines, not too long but not too short, and I can see how this type of structure in a painting can offer an opportunity for improvisation and action-oriented execution. Acrylic paint may have many faults but sometimes the viscosity seems to help to freeze a certain velocity that Carl may have been shooting for here. Every piece had an obvious layer of blue sky at the top which would be annoying were it not for what was underneath; varied and diverse compositions combining different color combinations making for a pleasing viewing experience. One piece (the first one to sell I saw) was a nice monotone black, white and gray color combination while some employed other three to four color family groupings like pink, brown and green. Some pieces would have made for great triptychs (especially the six which were three by three feet square) on their own but the pieces were not obviously grouped together in that way. Around four of the pieces broke away from specific color families and used more of an “all the colors” type of execution which made for colorful passages and solid compositional painting.
I guess if you like mountains and abstract landscape paintings you would like this show. Nothing new or challenging was presented here but these works are good and exhibited a short (six months was the amount of time Carl was making these pieces) and fun jaunt through a small aspect of Carl Smith’s always expanding game.
Watch a video of the show here =
https://www.facebook.com/832238210/videos/10153757398483211/
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