Windows are evocative objects. Without someone visible looking through, they can bring about feelings of loneliness and alienation — and that’s what Holly Lombardo’s windows do for me. They appear lonely, detached and abstracted from the whole of the house, and I reach for the perennial allegory of the individual versus the society to account for that impression. The window, the individual, is an inseparable part of the house, the society. It looks intriguing, but pitiful and lost at the same time.
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Must there be something symbolic in watercolors depicting water? I feel almost impelled to find a hidden link – and there isn’t one besides the relation made obvious by the words themselves. Watercolor is not the perfect medium — if there is one — for seascapes and scenes, but, as Holly Lombardo shows us, it is as good as any other. It’s particular way of drying on paper benefits some seawater characteristics, particularly the transparency and lightness of the upper layers. It interacts well with the white surface, reinventing it as light; the overall impression is of sunlit scenes or visual snippets of passing yet memorable moments.
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Holly Lombardo is a self-taught American painter and photographer who works in watercolors and acrylics, creating landscapes, still life and suburban scenes. She publishes her artwork on her blog, Painted Paper by Holly, and her photos on another blog, Photo Paper by Holly. Her photographs are interesting not only for themselves: many exhibit compositional features that may be traced in the artist’s paintings as well. In today’s review I would like to discuss Holly Lombardo’s landscapes with trees (images have been watermarked according to the artist’s request. Visit Holly Lombardo’s website to see the original reproductions).
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The surfaces of the still life objects enjoy a subtle and sophisticated rendering, similarly to the flowers. However, while the petals evince a more or less two dimensional representation, the fruits imitate spherical three dimensional forms; the illusion of three dimensionality relies heavily upon light and shade manipulation, only in global rather than local terms. Here the artist’s technique of handling light and shade finds its full expression, creating full-bodied forms; the viewer is encouraged not only to “touch” the skin of the lemons, pomegranates and Brussels sprouts but also to “feel” their weight.
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SINH is a French born artist now living in California, USA. She paints flowers and still life and publishes her work on her blog and website. SINH’s oeuvre displays a fascinating quality I now believe to be characteristic of painters who focus on only one or two themes: a consistent and notable change in style, from graphic to painterly in this case. We often read in art monographs how during decades of work an artist’s brushwork gradually grows more “loose and confident.” This is exactly what is happening here, only faster, because the theme’s minimalism allows for a rapid style evolution. To more fully experience the extent of this stylistic shift, I would suggest examining everything on SINH’s blog, following the chronological order. In today’s review I would like to talk about the artist’s latest florals.
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