Gordon Sizelove "Elation" Pastel on Paper, Abstract Swirl Pattern Drawing in Turquoise, Bay Area California Art, Original 20 X 20 Inches, 2022

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Description

Overlapping loops of turquoise, marigold, olive green and navy swirl across the sheet in broad, blocky strokes, curling into one … Read more Overlapping loops of turquoise, marigold, olive green and navy swirl across the sheet in broad, blocky strokes, curling into one another like currents in a pond or the petals of a flower seen from above. Gray touches temper the brighter colors, and the pastel has a soft, matte grain that lets each stroke keep its own edge. The composition feels cheerful and balanced, with warm yellows rising from the cooler teals and greens. Sizelove builds such drawings from a single curving line, laying color along it so that each shape bends with the movement of the whole. The movement here is gentle and circular, and the mood matches the title.

A bright square for a kitchen, a breakfast corner, a sunroom or an entry. The turquoise and marigold look fresh with white walls, light oak, rattan and cobalt ceramics, and they warm up gray or navy rooms. Hung in a pair or beside a window, it gives a space a clear spot of sunshine, and its square format settles easily above a bench or a console.

Pastel on Paper, 20 x 20 x 0.5 in (50.8 × 50.8 × 1.3 cm). Unframed.

Sizelove's pastel works begin the way his paintings do, with a curved, flowing line that sets the movement of the sheet. Color is then built up along that line in short strokes and rounded dabs of pastel, each slightly different from its neighbor, until the whole surface is covered. The chalky pigment sits on the grain of the paper, and where marks overlap they blend into new tones. The work is on paper and unframed.

Gordon Sizelove (b. 1953, Boston) is a San Francisco painter who works in acrylic, pastel, charcoal and pencil. Raised in Springfield and Worcester, Massachusetts, he moved west in 1972 to attend the San Francisco Art Institute, studying with Sam Tchakalian, Julius Hatofsky, Tom Holland and Robert Hudson, and earned his MFA in Painting in 1979.

After a teaching credential from San Francisco State University, he taught art in the San Francisco public schools for decades, including students with dyslexia, and has painted full time since retiring in 2014. His work, shown in a 2023 Inter-Society Color Council exhibition in Rochester, builds interlocking patterns from spots and strokes of color placed along a drawn, curving line, in the spirit of Buckminster Fuller's geodesic structures and with a long interest in the consciousness of perception. He lives and works in San Francisco's South of Market district. See less