Ruth Laskey

Plain Weave Grid (Emerald Green, Spring Green, Ruby Red, Primrose Yellow)

2015

Color softground etching.

Color aquatint and hardground. Edition of 25

Gouache and graphite on handmade paper. 18 x 12 inches unframed, 23.25 x 17.25 inches framed. Artist Statement: “As an artist, I find endless possibilities overwhelming and use self-imposed boundaries to focus my work. This often includes some combination of: a literal grid or graphite border, employment of barbecue skewers or wooden chopsticks in lieu of paintbrushes for mark making, use of a monochromatic or limited color palette, and a reliance on shape and pattern to tell a story. Limiting the elements at play adds a measure of gravity to each decision, and every detail about the paper, the viscosity of the paint, micro variations in hues, and even the sharpness of the point on a skewer matters. I’ve found that the more restrictions I put in place when I paint, the freer my work has become, allowing a tension to form between the organic and prescribed. Rather than sketch before starting a new piece, I spend time with the paper and begin to visualize possibilities. From there, I can expand the work incrementally. Whether I’m working in an adapted form of pointillism, playing with opacity and hue, or building patterns through repeating shape, the work evolves in its own time. It is an intentionally open process of discovery that seeks to uncover the greatest potential of the basest elements we have at our disposal”. - Kate Snow

In this contemporary painting in acrylic on canvas mounted on a shaped panel by Elizabeth Gourlay, carefully ordered blocks of color in a luminous, grassy shade of green frame two th...