Some subjects are immune to age or aesthetic trends. Like the sprout that powers through the crack in the sidewalk, plant life in general and flowers in particular are irrepressible inspirations for art and have breached the territories of artists primarily known for other, more rigorous forms, from Piet Mondrian to Amy Sillman. Ruby Palmer’s show “Garden Theory” at Morgan Lehman Gallery demonstrates yet again that flowers are forever.
The paintings are in Flashe, acrylic, and acrylagouache on canvas or linen, ranging from 40 to 80 inches and alternating between vertical and horizontal orientation. Even the larger ones are comfortably scaled for viewer access. Palmer’s approach is to lay an overall field of varied plant forms in a hybrid eye-level and aerial view. She occasionally layers elements but most remain in their own place, keeping one another company on the same plane, as in a display case. Technically adept, these works have the tidy look of a “one go,” with no visible corrections or developmental history. Palmer samples different scales and orientations as well as value contrasts and color schemes: analogous versus complementary, warmer against cooler, opaque in contrast with transparent.
--
Read more at twocoatsofpaint.com.
