Tom Baldwin Abstract Prints

Recently graduated from Pasadena’s legendary Art Center College of Design, Tom Baldwin created the series of inkjet prints Japanese Gardens in 1996 on his computer, using then-nascent graphics technology to "paint" his images on the computer screen. Baldwin embraced this technology and its accompanying printing process not just for the speed and ease of their use, but because the artist could achieve the absolute flatness that the principles of modernism preached but ultimately--because of the limitations of their tools--never reached. These colorful, semi-abstracted views of Japanese temple landscapes subtly, but radically redefine picture space. Baldwin shifts fore and backgrounds, giving equal weight to skies and hillsides. Endowing a lowly bush with a vibrant purple or orange might cause it to pop out of proportion, but ultimately lends balance and stability to the work itself, in short, returning the composition to its original, harmonious whole in keeping with the subject matter. these original prints employ a color scheme that seems more reminiscent of 1980s Japanese pop art beer advertisements...

Recently graduated from Pasadena’s legendary Art Center College of Design, Tom Baldwin created the series of inkjet prints Japanese Gardens in 1996 on his computer, using then-nascen...

Recently graduated from Pasadena’s legendary Art Center College of Design, Tom Baldwin created the series of inkjet prints Japanese Gardens in 1996 on his computer, using then-nascent graphics technology to "paint" his images on the computer screen. Baldwin embraced this technology and its accompanying printing process not just for the speed and ease of their use, but because the artist could achieve the absolute flatness that the principles of modernism preached but ultimately--because of the limitations of their tools--never reached. These colorful, semi-abstracted views of Japanese temple landscapes subtly, but radically redefine picture space. Baldwin shifts fore and backgrounds, giving equal weight to skies and hillsides. Endowing a lowly bush with a vibrant purple or orange might cause it to pop out of proportion, but ultimately lends balance and stability to the work itself, in short, returning the composition to its original, harmonious whole in keeping with the subject matter. these original prints employ a color scheme that seems more reminiscent of 1980s Japanese pop art beer advertisements...

Japanese Garden: Orange, 1996 Tom Baldwin created the series of inkjet prints "Japanese Gardens" in 1996 on his computer, using then-nascent graphics tech...