Is it representational or an abstract? Do you know the image that inspired this painting? If so, you know the answer. Here's my inspiration, the Tarantula Nebula as seen through the James Webb telescope...I like to think I painted it plein air & here's what it looked like 90 minutes after this photo was taken...
Much of my approach in painting, as I’ve written about many times, is to ‘illustrate’ the echoes of the abstract in representational & that the representational can be broken down into the abstract,,,realism is in the eyes of the beholder and how its expressed, a perspective, a line is a line and doesn’t exist in reality, what we think of as a hard line truly fuses into the other objects, atoms as a whole, thus an edge is formed, uniting all form.
I’ve stated many, many times that my abstracts are or could be seen as a small portion of one of my more representational artworks, as seen under a microscope or through a telescope. When I saw a photo of the Tarantula Nebula as seen & captured from the James Webb Space Telescope, I immediately knew I had to paint it. Paint it, not only because of its immense beauty & symbolic meaning to me, but also to show the abstract nature of the representationalism. Yes, this image of a realistic place, in space & time that doesn’t need to be broken down into an abstract form, for it is an abstract form made real, as is all of life.
Because the photo wasn’t taken by me & the inherent nature of my work being that of spontaneity, serendipity & synthesis…I choose to go at it in as an organic, changing, moving, living entity in which my moment captured was perhaps 90 minutes after the photo was taken. As if plein-air painting the night sky, a nebula so far away were even possible. Here are the results of my thoughts & labors, using my broad palette & multi painting tools.
your comments & questions are welcome
Thanks, Richard
‘T.N. 2022’ 40”x20” oil