"Many Rivers"

This post duplicates the presentation of my work in my online exhibition with Galerie Cerulean, which ran on the website gallery until April 20, 2015 (and remains in the Archive section).

In other news, I have 12 pieces on view currently at Drawing Rooms, 180 Grand Street, in Jersey City, NJ. The show is entitled "Little Hand," curated by Anne Trauben, and includes 8 artists, some of my favorite contemporaries working in abstraction. Please follow this link for information about the artists, hours, directions, and public transportation options: Drawing Rooms website. The show will close June 28, and it's my first opportunity to show this much work this near a metropolitan area in quite some time. I hope you'll visit!

I have also completely revamped my own website, where you can see a few installation shots of that show, and selected works from the last ten years or so: www.ravennataylor.com. 
I plan to rotate works in and out of the website, so there will be fresh things to see periodically, but not too much all at once.

Gambit 2014   22.5" x 26" oil on paper

Retort 2015 22.5" x 30" oil on paper

Geologic 2015 22.5" x 27" oil on paper

Springhead 2015 30" x 22.5" oil on paper

The paintings were executed in oil paint, mostly on the paper called Arches Huiles, which is formulated for oil paints and solvents without the need for priming. I enjoy this immediacy, and the sensations of paper, the mix of drawing, fluid wash, stain and brushwork, the ability to change the shape and format in the process of working -- the imperatives of my materials.

The reference to rivers grounds my intentions in the dominant feature of the place where I live, as well as my ongoing preoccupation with time, its passage, and the evidences of what changes and what endures. Rivers also refer to the spiritual song by Jimmy Cliff, Many Rivers to Cross, which I was listening to somewhat obsessively in the studio last summer.

Many Rivers 2014 24" x 22.5" oil on paper

Untold 2015 22.5" x 30" oil on paper

Teeter-Totter 2015 22.5" 24" oil on paper

Broken Chord 2014 22.5" x 27" oil on paper

Sotto Voce 30" x 30" oil on wood panel

 

Natural History 2014 30" x 22.5" oil on paper

Ravel 2015 30" x 22.5" oil on paper

Glimmer 2014 22.5" x 26" oil on paper with fabric collage 

Thank you for your eyes and your support!

TODAY, by Mary Oliver, and birds

TODAY, Mary Oliver

Today I'm flying low and I'm
not saying a word.
I'm letting all the voodoos of ambition sleep.
The world goes on as it must,
the bees in the garden rumbling a little,
the fish leaping, the gnats getting eaten.
And so forth.
But I'm taking the day off.
Quiet as a feather.
I hardly move though really I'm traveling
a terrific distance.
Stillness. One of the doors
into the temple.


from A Thousand Mornings, Penguin, 2012