ARTiculAction Art Review - Special Issuue Aug. 2016 | Page 90

ICUL CTION
C

o

n

t

e

m

p

o

r

a

r

y

A

r

t

R

e

v

i

e

Dalia Smayze

w

L illian Abel
Lives and works in Los Angeles, California, USA

An artist's statement

T

he paintings are an exploration
of the space between
abstraction and representation.
They are abstracted by the palette knife,
searching for hidden worlds and images
in the paint that reveal on the picture
plane. They need to be uncovered,
stroked, massaged and moved onto the
surface, brought up from where they are
hiding; surprising me with their ability to
come forth when called by my hand.
Revealing the recognized of our ‘world
sight’ as unrecognizable, opening the
eye of the witness to the coalescence of
fierceness and delicacy in Nature.
Beginning from the darkness, moving to
find hidden worlds that lay just beyond
the edge of our awareness, calling forth
the unexplored knowledge of the unseen.
When the scales of our eyes are lifted we
are brought to the underlying entity.
The work depicts Nature, however it is
made in the studio from memory,
impulse and emotion.

16

The work is created with a palette knife,
laying down one, two or three colors
together. The paint is moved around the
wood surface to find the desired images.
Often times a good image is covered up
for the sake of the whole composition; and
there are times when all the paint needs
to be removed before starting over again.
It is a process of finding the desired forms
and composition of the painting, while not
initially laying out the end piece. My
process is to find ambiguous forms that
make an impression, rather than an
image. The work requ ires patience of the
viewer to discover these forms, which
allows a direct experience on both an
emotional and intellectual level. Although
the overall look is landscape, the desired
outcome is the deeper sense of energy of
nature, as well as within the nature of us.

Lillian Abel