Blue Period

Thomas Masters Gallery
December 2005

In early 2005 I was invited by my Chicago dealer, the Thomas Masters Gallery, to take part in an exciting project they had come up with. The project was to be called “Blue Period,” and the concept really captured my interest. Artists from selected parts of the world would be invited to take part, and all artists would work on four boards provided by the gallery. All the works would be the same size, and the artists could only use shades of blue. Aside from these restrictions, subject matter and paint handling (or, in some cases, collage) were left up to each artist to be interpreted as they wished.

The resulting show was fascinating…..a narrow white shelf ran around the walls of a white gallery, and the small, blue squares were placed along its length. Legend has it that each painting was assigned to a particular playing card, the deck was shuffled, and the paintings arranged in the order in which they appeared in the deck! True or false, the arrangement of these varied works created a vibrant path around the gallery…figurative images flanked by abstract works, smooth surfaces beside deeply textured ones, all in a huge variety of shades of blue.

Being limited to four panels did not suit me, of course, so I had extra panels made here in New Zealand, and embarked on a series of blue works that fed off the pieces I had in the Chicago show. I am continuing to add to the series, keeping the same size, but perhaps moving away from blue…who knows? These “Blue Period” images are just the beginning.