Principle Gallery | 10/7-10/24 | Alexandria, VA

Stimulating Cityscapes

Mark Laguë shows dynamic new works at Principle Gallery’s Alexandria, Virginia, location.

Mark Laguë spent 13 years in the animation industry, working as a background designer and art director, meanwhile showing his watercolor paintings in art exhibitions. He began painting in oil in 2000 and, in 2002, devoted himself to painting full-time.Toward the Colosseum, oil on panel, 24 x 18"

Drawn to the geometric and eschewing the tight realism of his animation painting, he reduces iconic buildings and city scenes to their essence allowing the viewer to see them in a different light. “My arc as a painter has been simplification,” he explains. “I think my work is representational. The greatest challenge is to convey something that gives an emotional response to the viewer as I continue pushing the boundaries. It’s not about iconography.”Brooklyn Bridge Midday, oil on panel, 30 x 40"

His bold brush strokes that only suggest detail, as well as his bright colors, create a visual excitement that distinguish the paintings as his. He qualifies his use of color, however. “When people look at the paintings, they think it’s about the color but it’s the values. I tell students ‘If your values are strong you can use any color you want.’ Value is the most important thing to me. Also, color is very subjective and personal. Value always trumps color. Let color happen.”Eiffel Tower from Above, oil on panel, 40 x 20"

The amazing coordination of visual stimuli entering the eyes and the organization of the stimuli in the brain recreate the visual memory of structures like the Brooklyn Bridge, while allowing us to marvel at the warm colors of the bridge against the grey-blueness of Manhattan, or the Eiffel Tower rising from the greenness of the Champs de Mars with its peak silhouetted against the blue of the River Seine.Flatiron on Fifth, oil on panel, 24 x 30"The contrast of values from light to dark is masterfully presented in Toward the Colosseum with the strong sunlight emerging from behind the dark mass of the Colosseum and silhouetting the people on the sidewalk.