Christopher Engel

One Thing Leads to Another (Abstract Expressionist Oil Painting, Green & Browns)

2015

abstract oil painting on canvas
organic, earthy palette of browns, blues, greens and black

This abstract expressionist style vertical painting was created by Hudson Valley based artist, Christoper Engel, in 2010. The composition features broad, gestural brushstrokes forest green, white, black, and sky blue. Paint is applied in a sweeping motion; the artist's brushstrokes create a web of tangled planes that connect the spaces between the foreground and background.
This painting evokes the aesthetic of a Hans Hoffman Abstract Expressionist painting, exploring interdependent relationships between form, color, and space.

About the artist and work:
Calm and confident brush strokes sweep over each canvas in a selection of abstract paintings by Christopher Engel. His work vibrates with the energy of bold, gestural lines that intersect at points between the foreground and background. These fields are bridged together in a web of kinetic, interconnecting lines which create a remarkable sense of three dimensionality. The close examination of space, or how we create it and replenish a void, is a study that Engel has pursued since he started as a landscape painter in the early 70s. “I was deeply affected by the relationship between the elements of the landscape; trees, shrubs, bushes, and elements on the periphery,” he states, “everything worked to define the space that contained and moved me.” Engel currently works out of a studio near Roxbury, NY, where a pellet stove warms the high ceilings and sunlight penetrates through sky-lights. Nestled in the Catskill mountains, he continues to honor the influence of the natural landscape and remain enamored by the impact of color. With several canvases standing over four feet tall, the surfaces are rich in a sophisticated palette of earth tones; greens, browns, blacks, blues and occasional use of bright red and orange allude to an aesthetic that straddles both landscape and abstraction. Yet despite representational titles such as “Canyon,” Ice Storm”, and “Clear Skies”, Engel’s vision immerses the viewer in suggestions of horizon lines or tree branches rather than orient them directly toward a conventional depiction. Tensions of push and pull are achieved with both opacity and transparency, as well as the natural flow of the medium. Ultimately, the point of departure is radically transformed and the end result is nothing short of powerful.

The space around us to me is the defining characteristic that makes us aware and allows us to function in our environment. Creating this feeling of space in my abstract work with color, texture, line, scale, scraping, dripping etc. is what satisfies my aesthetic needs. - Chris Engel