Up Close and Personal

Painting by Ken Auster
9 x 12, oil on panel

It is said that a good painting should reward the viewer in many different ways. One way a painting does that is to give you a totally different experience when viewed from a distance than it does when viewed up close. I own a painting by Ken Auster (a California Impressionist painter) that is a great example of this phenomenon. The top photo shows Ken's painting from a reasonable distance. It is clearly recognizable as a scene of the light rail line leading to Uptown Charlotte. Quite realistic and representational. The next few photos show the painting from a close-up vantage point. What a change--it is

almost abstract! And what great fun to see the thick impasto paint making its own patterns, completely independent of the subject matter.

Thinking of this phenomenon reminded me of an essay by Tim Kennedy (found on the Painting Perceptions website). He was writing about the magic of small paintings, and he said this: "We see the artist's hand in the marks on the surface of the panel or canvas that magically transform themselves at the same instant into a house or a flower--and then back again. It is an endless circuit that produces the hypnotic illusion of stopped time." 

Oh, yes. That's one of the things I love about small sized paintings. Is that a blob of yellow paint, or is it the sun on the treetops? Hark--it's both!! O joyful day, when a small painting sings from both near and far...