We are happy to hold over in our Window Gallery some of the newest works by Northwest painter, Mark Skullerud. This year Skullerud brings us new, sharp and crisp, stylized paintings of some of Seattle's known and lesser known urban scenes.
Skullerud's new and mature urban landscapes draw heavily upon his power as a trained illustrator while balancing his interest in abstraction. We can see where cubism makes a subtle appearance as a tool to establish his version of the overall concept that could be termed as "objective correlative".
With a Cubist style and evocative colors, Skullerud depicts our contemporary and pedestrian lives with bridges, boats, parks, buildings and urban streets. He doesn't romanticize the subject but rather breaks it down to an objective correlative that allows the expression of an emotion to be translated through the events, objects and color palette depicted. The visual narrative of his paintings are really very well done.
On the flip side, Skullerud has additional works that fall far more closely inline with traditional Impressionism. landscapes based on real things in real locations in the Puget Sound area. They are emotional portraits of a time of day, a weather pattern or a season that have a familiar feel of the region. Again, it could be somewhat object correlative as seen in his more urban images.
He wants viewers to know the beauty that's visible every day, and to recognize the fleeting and subtle light that is gives the region its character and identity.
The geography of Seattle and the Puget Sound are all about hills, valleys, rivers and waterways. He sees mountains and hills as a performance stage for lighting. They are sculptural like muscles, 3D forms that serve to show off the cloud shadows and sun, the filtered light that changes from moment to moment with the seasons. They are, from a distance, textural. As cloud shadows slip up and over peaks, the textures take on new vibrancy or subtlety that shows in the small color changes washed and rewashed by distance and atmosphere. He sees a never ending movie that makes this part of the world a place worth living in.
As with our past exhibits with Skullerud, the selection of artwork is diverse and there is really something for everyone. Small acrylic studies on canvas and the original concept drawings done in graphite are also available as support works to the larger completed paintings. You might think about collecting a trio to complete a concept.
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