SINH: Still Life

elijah — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 23:12:49 +0000

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.

The realism is particularly teasing because it is often on the verge of transmuting into impressionism, brush strokes appearing ready to smudge the colors. Perhaps the stylistic evolution mentioned in the previous review is not over yet. I would not go as far as calling the tendency of impressionistic generalization as a generic compromise or collapse, but the evidence of some sort of synthesis is there. For instance, in the two limes piece the tip of the yellow fruit in the background is realistic (resembling rhinoceros skin) whereas the tip of the green one in the foreground is much more impressionistic, with wide clearly visible brush strokes describing how light lands on the surface and defines the object.

The notion of weight extends to the backgrounds too. The ethereal flowers accord with abstract airy atmosphere, but the fruits need to actually lie on something. The artist chooses a basic setting resembling a wall and floor (or table) conjunction, with linear and angular characteristics which complement the globular forms of the objects without overpowering the latter. The dark gray bluish tones consume all the light, leaving a few dashes for the still life — but eloquent, central dashes. Overall, the fruits and vegetables appear to lay in a nook, or a lair, a stylized environment evidently composed by the artist. The focus in these paintings is on the relationship between the various subjects rather than between them and the background.

General color schemes are bolder: exotic red-black and yellow-green combinations enliven the quiet compositions. Although the florals display powerful tonal clashes (such as the opposing reds and greens), the human eye tends to ignore the green of the stems and leaves and focuses on the bright blooms. Perhaps we are not unlike insects, tempted by the flowers’ brightness, — only we bring death by plucking them whereas the insects bring life by pollinating them. Here the colors declare the strong sweet or sour taste of fruits that were meant to be plucked. In some ways, SINH’s still life reclaims some of the zest lost in melancholic flowers.

SINH: Melancholic Flowers

elijah — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 19:49:46 +0000

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.

Depiction of the texture of the flower’s petals in a painterly and somewhat free-flowing style powerfully evokes the sense of touch. These flowers were meant to be touched first, smelled second — paradoxically, these are the blind person’s versions, Braille flowers, if you will. It is not the brushwork and the actual laying of paint upon the board, but rather the illusion of the immediacy of tactile sensation passed by purely visual means that brings these flowers to life. The stress here is not on the literally sensuous but on the conceptual and abstract processing; it’s as if feelings of touch are being transferred directly into the viewer’s brain.

In more technical terms, a detailed description of how light and color interchange contributes to said illusion. The petals appear to flutter and crease like paper; nevertheless, the main subject of each painting is still the bloom, a unified whole that is more than the sum of its petals. The artist coats the flowers with a white veil of light, the former absorbing the latter in its entirety (nothing is reflected). Curiously, there are no large shadows around the flowers — a fact that discloses the wish to keep things as abstract as possible — but plenty of small dark patches and undefined areas that sculpt the leaves.

The impression of thinness accords with the reticent, low-key and somewhat pale palette. Everything is subdued here, reflecting the onset of withering and expressing a melancholic mood. One would assume that these flowers were painted for their delicacy and fragility; the artist finds appropriate backgrounds to complement these features. The choice of neutral backgrounds produces the effect of surprise, as if the blooms expanded from nowhere and filled the space. If so, this might have been the most energetic and important moment in “the lives” of these florals; the general parabolic movement denotes an opposite process, not devoid of its own quiet poetry.

Art & Critique » SINH

SINH: Still Life

Read More Reviews:

SINH: Melancholic Flowers

Read More Reviews: