Artwork Title: The Great Outdoors

The Great Outdoors

William Mackinnon

Although many of his paintings don’t include cars, William MacKinnon’s style could be termed “automotive chiaroscuro.” The pictures in the Australian artist’s “I Am Beginning to See the Light” often center on a small patch of visible road or outback at night, illuminated by headlights or street lamps. Other around-midnight scenes in the Morton Fine Arts show include “The Great Indoors,” which depicts a house glowing from within and a porch supporting a string of blue lights that resembles a misplaced constellation. The even inkier “There Is a Darkness” discloses little more than a red swoop — perhaps a dirt road — on the lower left and a star cluster on the upper right. The preponderance of black in MacKinnon’s compositions endows drama, but it also serves to unify the various techniques and media. The artist employs oil, acrylic and auto-body enamel in the same pictures and contrasts precise rendering with looser brushwork that verges on abstraction. The distinction reflects the divide between man-made and natural: Lush vegetation and night skies inspire a freer hand. It also reflects the moods of an artist who writes, “Each day I come into the studio feeling different.” Rather than harmonize these emotions, he juxtaposes them extravagantly, under the cover of darkness. [https://mortonfineart.wordpress.com/tag/william-mackinnon/]
35 x 47 in
Uploaded on Dec 4, 2017 by Suzan Hamer

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