Blog

Marx was an early psychologist. He observed "We think in words". If we don't have "words for things" often we aren't conscious of them. Painters, good painters, paint the unconscious, what you "can't see" and have words for.

In this painting, by extension from Marx, "If we think in words, then, we "see" in shapes."

I explored a landscape in a somewhat Cubist approach, reducing what I "see" into fundamental quasi-2D shapes:  the circle, square, rectangle, triangle, etc. Cézanne proferred: "Paint with only a series of little 3D shapes: the cone, the cylinder, the sphere, & the pyramid." (paraphrased). He experimented. They mocked him. "No shame, no gain!" I say. Hats off to Cézanne, the father of modernism.

Take a look at Phil's portfolio to see this 20" x 24" oil painting and the rest of his incredible collection at www.gallerymoab.com

Colorado River "Shapes" by Phil Wagner