Charles Emerson - Lunar Poetics, Falling Angels and Meanderings

March 2 - April 1, 2023

Artist’s Reception: First Thursday, March 2, 6-8 PM

Artist Talk: Saturday, March 11, 2:00 PM

In Lunar Poetics, Falling Angels and Meanderings, Pacific Northwest artist Charles Emerson shares richly hued abstract paintings that describe ethereal and atmospheric spaces. Embracing color as the foundation of his work, Emerson builds his compositions by applying layers of subtly varied tones that shift with light and harmoniously transcend. His paintings contain terrestrial forms, celestial shapes, and painterly marks, each depicting emotive cosmos with every varying palette.
 
By probing into the metaphysical through psychic exercises, new forms and avenues of contemplation emerge for the accomplished 87-year-old oil painter. Regarding this new body of work the artist shares, “’Lunar Poetics’ are a basis for color studies. ‘Meanderings’ are delving into new structural and spatial ideas, while ‘Falling Angels’ depicts angels turning into rocks – by God. [According to Abrahamic religions] the angels took pity on Adam and Eve when they were expelled from the garden of Eden, thereby opposing God…[and resulting in their transformation to stone], a subject allowing me to keep developing my love of painting rocks and landscape in an abstract manner.” This inward direction adds another dimension to Emerson’s work, to further understand himself and his art in his late career, while continually exploring the unknown. Adeptly creating spatial ambiguity and shifting visual experiences through the artist’s masterful understanding of color and our mind’s perception of it, Emerson’s paintings have an evocative, mercurial quality befitting their metaphysical inspiration.

Click here to view additional work by Charles Emerson