Still Life with Matisse's Red Studio

20 x 24"     Oil on Linen

I have always thought of Matisse’s artistic philosophy as the polar opposite of my own. Day and night, fire and water, life and death. My world is luminous and atmospheric, his is flat and static. My world is inhabited by forms, his with shapes and patterns. His world screams with color, mine is more reserved, with a combination of subtle and vibrant tones. Yet we both live on the same planet and breathe the same air. I became intensely aware of this contrast on a recent visit to the Museum of Modern Art, as I stood in my atmospheric world and stared at his flat world. Before me was his Red Studio, and between myself and his painting there was space and people moving freely in that space. I found it curious and fascinating that these two opposite worlds coexisted without conflict, and that no one else in the museum seemed to notice the contrast at all. I began to wonder if these opposite worlds could exist on the same canvas. When I returned to my studio, I set up a still life in my atmospheric world and used Matisse’s Red Studio as the background. I looked through my space into his flat world. My forms contrasted with his shapes. My vibrant and subtle tones played against his intense color. Our worlds, polar opposites, did not collide, they coexisted. The result is subtle yet dynamic, simple yet intensely lively, playful yet profound…