By Donald Schenkel
55 x 85 cm, 2019
Oil paint on canvas, framed in a handmade steel frame

Approaching oil paints as material instead of a means to create an image, led to a focus on the qualities of paints and the behavior of colors and light. Translucent blues lead the way to a sense of endless space and light. Translucency expresses depth in the sense of an expanse: it gives space. Light is never without direction and reflection. As gradients arise from different sides of the canvas they morph together in beams of an undeterminable light grey. Seeing the light seep in from several sides leads to an experience of lightness. Colour gradients can invoke the impression of translucency, yet at the same time it is a very real characteristic of oil paint as it can appear like glass or lacquer. By playing with translucency certain qualities of colours are exposed which otherwise remain hidden.