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Leaf and Bark and Limb and Bough - Landscapes of Jerry Cutler
Gallery: "Grand Flora, 2002‑2004"
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Grand Flora is a series of monumental landscapes and the companion, smaller works that serve as their models. After painting the eight large works for the Sylvan Suite I wanted to see how color and an increased complexity would operate at a mural-sized scale. Such painting can require a good bit of scaffold work and attention to detail over large spaces, so I need to have a model to keep each passage related to the whole. Since I do not use photos, relying on very small sketches, the smaller paintings, or "modellos," are important signposts for me in negotiating the vast scale and detail required. Sometimes the two images are remarkably similar and other times there are significant differences between the two. As you view the works in this web gallery please take special note of the sizes.
Most of my work can be said to have a "linear style," in the sense that outlines and contours are prominent features. I have two purposes with this line work. One is to encourage a sense of touch by providing a strong edge for the eye to grip, thus filling out the tactile sense in the viewer. The other is to mediate the rivalry between the rounded, modeled forms and the flat, planar shapes that are essential to painting. Most of the older works feature the use of black lines. In the Grand Flora series I have experimented with colored lines in order to determine their bearing on the overall use and effect of color.
The most interesting aspect of painting these large pieces is the image-building of trunks, leaves, and branches that are at a 1:1 scale with nature. As a painter I find it deeply satisfying to bring these forms to life at life scale where the surfaces and structures can be realized in a full and direct sense. |
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