DESIRING THE INEVITABLE (SPIRAL TAIL), 1993
Gouache on Thai mulberry paper, 63 x 36 inches
$6,000.
Click to enlarge any image below:
LOSS, 1999
Gouache on Thai mulberry paper, 18 x 15 inches
$2,200.
Detail below - click to enlarge:
PILLAR 5 (stack small balls), 2000
Gouache on Thai mulberry paper, 22 x 27 inches
$2,800.
Detail below - click to enlarge:
Click to enlarge any image below:
REFLECTED WORLD (vertical rhomboid), 2000
Gouache on Thai mulberry paper, 36 x 26 inches
$4,000.
Susan Skilling's paintings are spare and elegant meditations on such widely varied subjects as Tibetan mandalas, plant forms, and slices of rocks, geodes and crystal. Often the work is geometrical but, even then, an organic sensitivity pervades the formal choices made by the artist. Along with artists like Morris Graves or Anne Appleby, Skilling's choices of imagery, color and content lead her in the pursuit of the sublime.
Painting with mineral based gouache paint, some of it handmade by the artist, Skilling creates a dense layering of subtly nuanced color over a handmade Thai mulberry paper surface. Her palette is somber and modest, with occasional highlights of brilliant, saturated color.
I have watched the progress of Susan's paintings over the 25 years she has shown in Seattle. From the first time I encountered these delicate subtle paintings I have been intrigued by them. Since her early shows with Foster/White Gallery, each body of her work has been a slow, quiet revelation of this artist's path toward a personal enlightenment. This is the kind of artist who is led by her inner voice and not by the dictates of fashion or the marketplace. Nonetheless, her work has maintained a broad area of contact with contemporary concerns in painting. I am pleased to announce that we now represent her work exclusively in the Northwest.
