Filtered II provides a compelling tonal history over a complex below-the-surface structure.
Filtered II works from dark to light and back to dark again, on top of a ground of heavily worked gestural marks. Initially the panel was primed black, only to cover it in a complex system of over-painting. This provides a compelling tonal history. It has a haunting misty illusionistic depth, conjured by the application of successive layers of sienna, umber and white. Each layer of colour was applied with varying degrees of pressure in order to reveal, to a greater or lesser extent, the underlying surface structure.The eloquent shapes left untouched by the last layer of paint are windows that reveal the paintings past. These shapes highlight the below-the-surface geological ambience reinforcing a surface where flatness and depth coexist. Filtered II generates a lyrical planar elasticity across the painting surface, in which everything appears muted yet beautifully modulated into a soft-focus reverie.
