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Writer's pictureKevin Drake

from Abstract to representational and back

Updated: Jul 8




Its been a while and beyond time to update. It's July 6th and im sitting on the porch in the at 10:20 am reflecting on the the transition and flux in my artistic journey. I've had a solo popup show, and invited to do an artists talk and will be having a group show this coming September. Ive have a fondness for the fauves, and impressionists, and the trmendous work that was produced in a short time span. Idraw from the even shorter time span of the fauves because thats when art took a radical turn. this spawned inspiration in may greats of the time and still continue to inspre. The Met put a show on with Andre Derain, and Henry Matisse that covered their journey into radical representation of the landscape of Collioure France a small fishing port that allowed the artists to express the light a vibrancy of the land.

this is where Fauve was born. And its the art these tow created in those 6 weeks that inspired me to create this small series of collioure. In the book the Met produced on this show there is a section in the back of the book named letteres and postcards. In that section there is a photo of a postcard that Matisse sent to Derain urging him to come to collioure. this prompted me to search the web for this postcard... and to my luck i found it, and thus multiple others of that time. The image abouve is from a postcard from the early 1900's in collioure. A view from the behind the fortress overlooking the town of collioure. this is also a view from which Andre Derain had of the village in one of his most masterful works he produced at that time. The expressive nature, masterful use of color and radical departure they created looks incredibly simple, and yet trying to "mimic" is very difficult. its having control and understanding of form and being able to be loose with it is just incredible to see as i try to recreate my own images in that style. i relate their free and ease of their mastery to that of the modern abstract expressionists. you have to master the basics of drawing, color and composition to be this free. it was noted that Matisse and Derain used what nature had as well as creating what it didn't. Im guessing eliminating and adding from that scene before them.highly abstract! As i prepare for the abstract show in September im pushing my boundries to construct a new series of abstracts, all the while using what ive learned from this journey into the fauves. More to come.



Collioure "La Passe du Port" (postcard)




You're the first to see this work, and this will be in the show in September 2024. Can you see Collioure in this?

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