The
Search for Abstract Art
by Caryn May
Modernism and Abstract Expressionism are genres over a half a century old, yet images and techniques that are abstract and improvisational rather than figurative continue to be hesitantly received by some. This month in Bend galleries, we found few examples.
The work of two women abstract artists did stand out. Glenna G. Parker's brilliant watercolors, applied undiluted with palette knife and even spatulas, hang at Kebanu Gallery on Bond Street, as well as the mixed water-media work of Sandra McCourry. Both are Oregon artists...
...Kebanu is also showing the mixed water-media abstract painting of Sandra McCourry whose work, while not as intensely dramatic as Parker's, is fascinating in its misty imagery. McCourry uses watercolor, liquid acrylics, ink, caran d' ache (watercolor crayons), and linoleum block designs among other materials to produce her amorphous but evocative images.
Misty Paris Evening (upper left) suggests a human figure that is charming yet grossly distorted, possibly by its reflection in a glistening rain-swept city street. And Ancient Ritual's (right) soft leafy greens and earth browns speak directly to the artist's inspiration by the natural world.
McCourry's pieces are not characterized by knife-edge strokes, but by layering and distinctive techniques using poured, flowing, intermingling cloud-like colors and images more typical of watercolor.
Commenting on Modernism and Abstract Expressionism, art historian Ernst Gombrich once said that when work is so superlatively done that viewers are consumed by the artist's process, they forget to ask what the work is supposed to be. Glenna Parker and Sandra McCourry produce work that does just that.
Glenna Parker and Sandra McCourry's work may be seen at Kebanu Gallery, 844 NW Bond St. 389-3131.
McCourry's work can be viewed on her website www.sandramart.com
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