The artwork is a photograph of the reflection of a hull of a boat on the surface of the water. The artwork is inspired by the Abstract Expressionist painters Willem de Koonig and Jackson Pollock. The creation of Dusty on the Surface helped me break some constraints around my own creative practice. It was the first artwork in which I connected the real with the reflection as opposed to a photograph of a simple reflection off the surface of the water. The upper third of the artwork reveals the stern of a moored yacht with the lower two thirds the reflection of the vessel and its rigging on the water. The insight for me was I could combine these two elements (real and reflection) to form an abstract visual landscape, the perception of which provided mystery and illusion and thus a conversation in a viewer's eye.
Part of Paintings on Water Series
Paintings On Water is composed of works that reflect on abstractions in nature as an art form.
I am of the opinion abstract painting is not an unconscious act of visualization by an artist. I believe it forms as the result of an artist's subconscious observation in reality and an abstract painting is the artist's manifestation of what their brain has perceived it sees. The Paintings On Water series is based on capturing those unconscious abstractions in nature first, using a 21st Century medium - the digital camera - enabling the viewer to form their own perceptions of what these natural abstractions represent.
Background to Ralph Kerle's Art
Each work consists of abstractions found in reflections on the surface of water. The images are not photo-shopped or artificially created. They are images nature has created at a moment in time and exist in reality.. There is no right or wrong way to view the work. Each piece is designed for viewers to form their own meaning through the image's shape, colour and form. The works purpose is to encourage pleasurable aesthetic mediation and connection.
- Created: July 14, 2017