A Lemon and a Knife, the Primaries

A Lemon and a Knife, the Primaries

A Lemon and a Knife, the Primaries6×8″Oil on Linen Panel© Kelly Medford, 2012At some point while working on this painting, I stepped back realizing that this was a painting about the primary colors with a balancing neutral middle tone inbetween.What does it mean? Why did I do that?While of course I have no real answer, it did occur to me that last month I spent a day at a Mondrian exhibition here in Rome which showcased his progresssive periods throughout his life’s work and I was left fascinated,with quite a lot to think about.Even though he is most remembered for his primary colored “grid” paintings, Mondrian started out as a landscape painter and in his winding path became of of the founders of the DeStijl movement. What I had never really considered is that all long he was a landsacpe painter, searching for his expression and an efficent or true expression of this. What some might simply call “grids” or “squares” were paintings rooted in a deep tradition of landscape painting.In looking through some of his work online, I realized that I hardly ever (if ever) found a piece that places red in the bottom left corner as I have done in my compositon. In mine it seemed to work and to offset the rest of the painting. In his compositions, like mine, the red is often a proportionally large shape, but he often balances with white and solid black lines.Of course Mondrian and I don’t really have anything in common, or do we? I too am searching for something, and am not quite sure what, in landscape painting, or in any and every painting. I too am searching for a synthesized way to capture the landscape.His search took him to experiement with many styles and media, he was greatly influnced by Fauvism,  Cubism and then jazz, going on to find his own way and make and discover his own “style” or voice, while always being influenced and effected by those around him.I don’t know what this means for me, and where my path is leading me, but it never hurts to stop and think about and to pay homage to the greats who came before us.If you like this painting and want to own it, click here to bid on it.