Gordon Sizelove "Pose" Acrylic on Canvas, Abstract Swirling Stroke Painting in Pale Aqua, Carmel California Art, Original 18 X 18 Inches, 2022

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Short, curved dashes of pale aqua, mint, lilac, peach and burgundy cover the square, bending into faint concentric swirls that … Read more Short, curved dashes of pale aqua, mint, lilac, peach and burgundy cover the square, bending into faint concentric swirls that drift across the canvas like currents or the whorls of a fingertip. The palette is light and airy, with the burgundy marks acting as dark notes that give the pale colors depth. Because the strokes lean in different directions, the surface seems to hold several quiet rhythms at once. Sizelove starts with a curving line and sets color along it, and the strokes here are long enough to read as small gestures, like a figure holding a pose. The mood is soft, balanced and a little dreamy.

A light, gentle square for bedrooms, bathrooms, entries and reading nooks. Aqua and lilac look right with white linen, pale oak, rattan and soft green plants, and they brighten gray walls. At eighteen inches square it suits a single wall or a pair above a bench or console, and its burgundy touches pick up wine glasses, books or a dark chair nearby.

Acrylic on Canvas, 18 x 18 x 1 in (45.7 × 45.7 × 2.5 cm). Unframed.

Sizelove begins each acrylic painting by drawing a curved, flowing pencil line across the canvas, mapping the proportions and movement of the composition. He then places spots and strokes of color along those lines to reinforce them, and keeps adding color until the canvas is full. Overlapping marks eclipse one another and mix new colors where they meet, and he varies each form on purpose so the surface feels natural. The result is a shallow, topographical field of color.

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