I could sing the praises of many aspects of Kim Lordier‘s 20″ x 24″ pastel “Test of Time,” beginning with the wonderful treatment of morning sunlight. But it’s the expertly rendered perspective that inspired this frame design—a surround to simply extend and amplify the force field Kim created to pull us into this iconic old California farm and its stories.Perspective—artists since Maurice Denis (1870-1943) have rebelled against the rules of perspective and argued for painters to think of a painting as a flat surface on which to arrange shapes and colors. The idea, foundational to modernism, was often promoted in the name of artistic freedom. Fair enough. But it’s hard to think of anything more freeing—not only to the eye but to the mind and soul—than breaking through the walls, the confines, of a room by making windows. As works like “Test of Time” demonstrate, the power of perspective will always captivate us—an indispensable ingredient in the illusion of another world seen through the plain of the wall. Perspective both draws us in to that world and, reciprocally, brings that world to us.
In any case, a painting with powerful perspective is a blessing to the framer, who gets to complete the painter’s illusion with the architectural trim we expect to see around a window, and to deliver that imagined world seemingly beyond the wall into the reality of the viewer’s world.
The 4″ wide carved and stained quartersawn white oak frame made by Trevor Davis is a scoop with a complementary carved cushion element at the sight edge, finished off with a gilt slip. Like the frame for Richard Lindenberg’s “Sonoma Coast” in my last post, it has a deep back that coves out beyond the outside edge of the frame’s face.
From the fragrance of the dry grass in the foreground to the dreamy clouds and eternal blue sky over the Pacific Ocean beyond the horizon, Kim’s masterful perspective offers us transcendence. We’d be fools not to accept it.
Come experience Kim Lordier‘s “Test of Time”—as well as her 12″ x 9” “Cypress Cove Dance,” at right—in “Beloved California VI: Twenty Painters with a Passion for Place.” Jessie did an excellent job hanging the show last week, and we had a terrific opening this past Saturday with much admiration expressed by attendees. I hope you’ll come see the exhibit. It’s on through the end of the year. (To view it and purchase work online, click here…)
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