Elizabeth Solley Caine
Paintings

June 8 - July 7, 2012

Opening Reception: June 8, 2012 5 - 8 pm

"For the last 4-5 years I have been visiting the Grand Teton National Park once or twice a year to try and capture the mountains and my reaction to them. I am not a plein air or landscape painter but an expressionistic figure painter that has turned to trying to capture my reaction to the nature of the American West. Last year I arrived at a way of painting the mountains that I was happy with and this is reflected in the series of red paintings that I am currently doing.

My work falls at the edge of the "realism". Although I know what I do is definitely realistic, I think of things in the way an abstract expressionist might. I explore shapes, colors, textures, brush strokes. I work on movement across the canvas, guiding the viewer's eye to what I want and around the whole of the composition. I realize that I have been trying to simplify the landscape in a way I find acceptable, capturing the shapes of things - clouds, snow, cliffs, groups of trees - without giving all the details. The more I paint these landscapes the better I see how to do this. The bold drawing and simple color choices allow me to show how dramatic and powerful the landscape is, leaving a sense of mystery, of a story started but not completely told, yet told enough. I think I fall towards the abstract in art, rather than mainstream realism."

- Elizabeth Solley Caine

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