Many artists say they are driven by a desire to capture light—that light is truly what they’re painting, what they’re chasing after. David Dunlop is no different in that regard, but his “quest for radiance” (the title of his June show at Susan Powell Fine Art) goes beyond mere light. He wants his paintings to be dynamically alive, and to provide an experience as close to how we visually perceive the world around us as possible.
May to September, oil on laminated aluminum, 24 x 36"
“Among my motivations is the desire to give myself and any observer a memory experience filled with motion and emotion,” says Dunlop. “What is it like to look at reflections on water? What is it like to look at things that are floating on the water and beneath the water? How do I get someone to look and have an experience that rekindles the experience of being in nature or on a city street?”
He achieves this through a scientific understanding of how the human eye operates, applying Renaissance glazing techniques and painting on metal substrates, often laminated aluminum.
Autumn Takes a Turn, oil on laminated aluminum, 32 x 32"
The first allows him to mimic, in paint, the way eye is constantly shifting focus (three to four times per second, he says), and how we actually see. Employing the techniques of the Old Masters, he builds up layer after thin layer of translucent oil paint (why do you think the Mona Lisa continues to have such resonance, he poses), which allows the light to pass through the paint, bounce off the reflective surface and back to the viewer.
“I want to give the viewer a sense of natural sparkle, a natural luminesce so the painting appears to be plugged in, to have its own light, a sensation you can get from some Renaissance paintings,” Dunlop says. “It’s closer to looking through stained glass than at an opaque wall.” He emphasizes that his work needs to be seen in person. Not only is it impossible for an image to convey his paintings' shimmering radiance, the pieces also change depending the time of day, the light and the angle from which you observe it.
Spring Reflections, oil on brushed gold laminated aluminum, 24 x 24"
One of his more impressionistic landscapes, May to September depicts a lush meadow only four blocks from the artist’s Connecticut home. In Spring Reflections, one can almost get a sense of the gleam coming off of the gold-laminated aluminum, as the eye flickers around the river’s mirror-like surface, the leaves on top and stones at the bottom. Dunlop also heads to nearby New York City to capture the intensity of its “kinetic activity,” as he did for Bright at Twilight on 42nd Street.
Bright at Twilight on 42nd Street, oil on laminated aluminum, 36 x 36"
“There’s so much emotion and energy [there],” he says. “Are the people moving toward you or away? Is this time of day early morning or in the evening? You can create a tableau where the mind can keep inquiring. It holds a basket of ambiguities…I want to invite the viewer into an activity, not just a flat picture. It needs to have enough ambiguity and uncertainty to suggest movement, but still be familiar, so that the viewer will look into the painting and the mind’s eye can start creating the image.”
Dunlop’s solo exhibition Quest for Radiance opens with a reception on June 6 from 5 to 8 p.m. and remains on view through July 6. —
Susan Powell Fine Art 679 Boston Post Road Madison, CT 06443 • (203) 318-0616 www.susanpowellfineart.com
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