A Question of Size

One of the great pleasures of plein air painting is watching the expanse of a view appear on a small canvas. This tiny painting is only 4" x6", done some months ago, but, it immediately recalls to my mind the freshness of that autumn afternoon and the breathless speed of the brushstrokes. 




Many, many elements contribute to the experience of a work of art.  One of the most fascinating, for me, is scale.  There is so much to consider on this subject, that I'm sure I'll return to it often in this blog, but suffice it to say that my interest began years ago when I discovered that a work I thought was huge (the iconic Red Poppy by Georgia O'Keefe) was really quite small.  Since she painted the subject several times, various dimensions are reported.  The painting that became the image on the stamp, the one that I thought surely had to be monumental was really a rather modest 30x36 and a similar one, I was told, was much smaller, although I cannot verify that.
       What I do know, is that this image, the Red Poppy, looms large in the mind - in our individual mind, and in the shared experience of our cultural mind -and this phenomenon is a kind of metaphor for our current world where every tune, phrase, image and concept goes viral.   It's a very curious phenomenon.

        My little painting, a momentary capture, is utterly inconsequential, having only personal significance of memory and experience - but it makes me wonder - and perhaps on this tiny scale, it speaks, or whispers, of the essence of art.