Cain Schulte Gallery

Connie Connally

My new body of abstract paintings is based on "reflections in the harbor." Painted "plein-air" from the balmy shores of Santa Barbara and from the coastal waters known as the "Bay of Poets" in Cinque Terre, Italy, I develop a painterly dialogue with the water and discover forms and structures too complex and varied to be invented out of my head. A personal language of marks, shifting colors, forms and gestures are created to articulate the many natures of water; a mirror changing with the color of its subject reflecting the nature of its place, becoming dangerous, beautiful, sharp, mournful, raging, angry, red, yellow, green, black, blue, cold and warm. Water carries away and sets down, fills and empties, races through or is still. As da Vinci observed, "In time and with water, everything changes." All these complexities are manifest in the visceral twists and curves and unrestrained palette found in my work.

The most difficult part is painting on the spot; taking in the imagery of the shifting waters and glancing back to an empty canvas. It presses my patience to stay objective to the painting in the process of being constructed while looking at the subject which is complete and most often in motion. John Berger, art critic, lamented while describing his own attempts at painting a landscape, "It sounds very easy: it is as easy as walking on water."

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