Impressions of Nature: Robert Moore, American Art Collector, July 2015

P R E V I E W S O F W O R K S F O R S A L E AT U P C O M I N G S H O W S C O A S T T O C O A S T

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ISSUE 117

WATC H 6 V I D EO S I N THIS I SSUE SEE PAG E 3 4

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Also Showcasing Glass, Ceramics & Wood

UPCOMING SHOW PREVIEW / JACKSON HOLE, WY

July 1-31, 2015

Trailside Galleries 130 E. Broadway | Jackson Hole, WY 83001 (307) 733-3186 | www.trailsidegalleries.com

ROBERT MOORE

Impressions of nature

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n an attempt to better understand color, Robert Moore started painting forest scenes featuring aspens. The tree’s familiar white bark helped him evaluate color harmony and its shifting aesthetic within his densely layered paintings of nature. The white also gave him his starting point, a zero mark on his scale of color and saturation—Moore is colorblind, and neutral whites oriented his palette.

After many years in forests of aspens, Moore has come out the other side with a profound respect for color and a deeper appreciation of how it functions within his own head and within his works.

“I was searching for a way to achieve a natural color sense in my paintings,” the Idaho painter says. “It allowed me to work on mixing thick harmonious paint on my palette and then transferring those beautiful

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colors to the canvas, sometimes over 3 feet where the progression could be seen really well. The aspens gave me the freedom to focus only on color and color mixing without being too concerned with the shape and form.

Now that I’ve achieved that, I feel more comfortable with my color vocabulary, and I want to shift my focus back into other subject matter.”

His new show, Impressions of Nature, opens at Trailside Galleries in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on July 1, and features new subjects, including barn and pasture scenes, delicate glimpses of floral gardens and farmhouse courtyards, and several new aspen pieces.

His expanded subject matter can be seen in works like A Hard Winter, with several cows in a snowy landscape with barns and sheds, and in Against the Wall, featuring tall floral vegetation reaching heavenward

1 Against the Wall, oil on canvas, 14 x 20" 2 A Hard Winter, oil on canvas, 24 x 36" 3 Holly Hocks, oil on canvas, 40 x 30" 4 Jubilee, oil on canvas, 40 x 40"

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and then play them into the composition.

“In a short time I can get thousands of small pieces of broken color. If you were to mix them individually they would take months, but with my finger, it’s a lot of work that gets done quickly,” he says. “My work is growing in complexity, and I’m excited to be exploring new subjects with these new ideas about color.”

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started moving away from brushes once he began to see the value of the raw paint and how it interacted with his hands.

Today Moore’s methods only occasionally involve a brush, and often include his hands and fingers, and a palette knife, as he works color onto his canvases. He often applies the paints directly from a caulking gun, which allows him to develop those chords

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in a suburban neighborhood.

Moore relates much of his new color appreciation to music. “I wanted to make color chords. Just like you can’t play Bach with one finger, you can’t paint with just one color. I found that I was losing colors when I painted with a brush. My color chords were getting turned into a single note of color,” he says, adding that he

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