- Apr 16

Wendy Skog

Wendy Skog is a contemporary color field and minimalist painter who has been exhibiting consistently throughout Canada since 1979. To date she has been featured in almost 30 solo exhibitions, recently in Bugera Matheson Gallery and Martin Bachelor Gallery. Her work has been critically acclaimed in publications such as Cut to Magazine and Victoria News. The paintings remain in corporate collections across Canada and the United States.

Through these rich paintings we may contemplate a retrospective of contemporary interpretations regarding purity in art. Many works by abstract painters may come as disjointed or even chaotic, Wendy’s works however offer balance with direct control of the entire surface of the composition. The best way to describe the synergy present within the paintings, which convey orderliness yet subtle variation, would be to think of a cross between Piet Mondrian and Mark Rothko. Color field and minimalist painting offers a meditative state to art while most abstract works may convey excitement or appreciation of design aesthetics. The most thorough approach to Wendy’s paintings are to relax, sip on a glass of wine and enjoy the silent tranquility of the clear and concise composition with gentle brushwork.

Finale (top of article) reflects a sophistication in assymetrical form, flatness, color, variation of brush and linework. While many abstract works may come off as flying forms of paint, we may appreciate the utter flatness of Finale, which some may argue is the way a painting should be. Paint and surface are reflections of two-dimensionality, the flatness of the painting denies the notion of illusion grounding the viewer in reality and mindfulness. We may meditate on the state of paint, the poetry of surface, and the intellectuality of fluid line quality.

Semper ad Meliora (pictured above) implies an improvement in the meaning being ‘always towards better things’ in Latin. The sheer splendor of the ocean of Naples yellow across vast quantities of the surface gently caresses minimal scratchy linearity and a handful of blocked brushstrokes. The composition almost reflects a window-like shape with a seesaw-appearing form in the foreground. With the balance of the seesaw, we may observe a shift of weight with paint towards the left side affecting the equilibrium of the composition. Wendy depicts the left portion of the seesaw-like form with pristine lemon yellow which harmoniously melts towards the similar Naples yellow background while the right side has contrasting red and green brush strokes. A push and pull, a yin and yang. Such a strategy seems unlikely to be improvised and certainly intentional.

Wendy Skog offers pristine abstractions which reflect the nature of paint as a vehicle of substance rather than illusion. She allows us to enjoy the moment, and encourages us to reserve judgment in associations, even though we almost have to in order to analyze the art. Through intuition, experience, and a contemporary spirit, Wendy Skog provides us with paintings which provide a complete and universal understanding of the philosophical teachings of Aristotle and Clement Greenberg. Denying the illusion can potentially be more powerful than recreating the spectrum of a mirage.