PaintingsDIRECT.com - Exhibition

Much as mathematics is integral to both art and architecture, so both fields explore the concepts of shape, form, perspective and pattern. Both are united by some of PaintingsDIRECT finest artists in their artworks of architecture. See how each adds their own spirit and reflection to these paintings of the structures that surround us, and in which we live.

This exhibition includes artists who paint or draw architectural structures. It includes works by Susan Barnes, Sharon Florin, Diana Freedman-Shea, James Juett, Ilya Lerner, Min Myar and Roman Scott.

Urban Attractions

Regardless of their artistic styles, PaintingsDIRECT artists concur about some of the attractive elements and opportunities offered by architecture as an artistic subject. Sharon Florin is attracted by "... the light, the shadows, the colors and the shapes that fascinate me when I walk around looking at architecture. There is an abstraction in the realism of the subject." Similarly, Susan Barnes finds "Looking for nature in a compressed urban environment, you find light and sky framed and cropped by architecture. The urban world came alive once I started seeing the effects of light and shadows on surfaces, shifting shapes and animating what is otherwise solid and fixed." Diana Freedman-Shea shares "I live in the city and geometry is everywhere. I try to capture the feeling of an environment that moves me. I may look at the same buildings but the time of day or season or weather gives me a different image each time. These shifts fascinate me." As a representational artist, Roman Scott finds that "Architectural structures are full of promise. They present a kind of personality, yet are more forgiving than a person or animal, whose figures feel slighted if exact proportions are ignored."

Paunches
(1995)
Sharon Florin

St Paul's Reflected
(2001)
Diana Freedman-Shea

Challenges

Lest you think anyone can create a good painting of an architectural structure, our accomplished artists face several challenges in doing so. Susan Barnes explains "Bringing life and movement to fixed forms was the biggest challenge. I addressed this by combining a variation of points of view and using a diptych or triptych format, as in my Verge works. I gave the architectural elements as much surface texture and treatment as I did the sky behind them, often interrupting the edges to allow them to merge." Ilya Lerner tells us "When I was just starting out the biggest challenge was the perspective, which in architectural work has to be more precise than in landscapes." Min Myar agrees. "The main challenge is the perspective and not having the painting look too rigid." James Juett discussed the issues in further detail, comparing drawing a structure versus painting one. "Drawing is not difficult at all - it is straightforward to make a sketch and see when it is complete. Once you have achieved perspective and proportion, the weight of a line to suggest gravity is finished in that it communicates and is accessible to everyone. Painting is much more challenging, as the language is more complex and it is an open ended process that doesn't have the same obvious finishing point. The nature of paint means that it has its own set of rules and you make different judgments when looking at a painting (as opposed to a drawing)."

Beam Work #4
(1999)
Susan Barnes

Piccadilly WIJ 9BR
(2006)
James Juett

Steel Muses

The artist's vantage point impacts their preferences and our artists have their favorites. Diana Freedman-Shea tells us "Certainly when I am in Paris, the Hausmann architecture and wrought iron balconies are beautiful, but if you were to ask me what really moves me there, it is the light and the cool grey skies against the warm golden buildings." Freedman-Shea adds "My work from the World Trade center was a celebration of a structure that allowed me to see great vistas." Ilya Lerner prefers "... older houses in general and old European towns in particular." Min Myar admires architecture of various countries, but says "The structure most interesting to me is the Chrysler Building in New York City. The design is beautiful and elegant." Roman Scott agrees with Myar's selection while adding others. "I especially like structures that have symbolic interest and are recognizable. A natural subject is the Brooklyn Bridge, which is woven into the lore of New York and America. It is a modern bridge, suspended with cable technology, yet has a foot planted way back in the stony, gothic past. The Flatiron building in New York is also a favorite, due to its challenging shape: a weird sliver of ornamented stone, always renewed and modern due to its dynamic placement, anchoring a whirlpool of one of New York's most important intersections."

Blue House In Cambridge
(1999)
Ilya Lerner

Silent Sentries
(2001)
Min Myar

The Inhabitants

But what are these buildings without the people who inhabit them? It depends on who you ask. James Juett says "For a picture of a street or building to work, I avoid including any 'extras' which could detract from the panoramic experience. The subject is the building or street itself, therefore I don't include any people, traffic and so on." While Sharon Florin doesn't find people necessary to a painting, she says "I sometimes include people in the painting, if they "work" with the subject, but a painting of a building can stand on its own." Ilya Lerner agrees that people are 'optional', but adds "My rule of thumb is that if somebody shows up by the time it takes to take a good look at the painting then people are a must." One final thought from Roman Scott. "I do like to show street life. Just as a building comes alive when its contour and lights interact (not just a sum of details), so also can it come to life by showing its context within the energetic arena of human activity. Architecture is very symbolic, and often the most concrete way a civilization leaves evidence. It is somehow fulfilling to show architectural monuments, solid and assured, backdrops anchoring a fluid, dynamic, and confusing world in the foreground."

Upper Fitzwilliam St Dublin 2
(2006)
James Juett

Chrysler
(1999)
Roman Scott