Landscape, Maine 1991

Editor: This is Elena Prentice's watercolor, "Landscape, Maine." It's a small piece, and the simplicity of the composition gives it a very serene quality. What do you see in the arrangement of color and form? Curator: Notice how Prentice uses horizontal bands to structure the composition. The dark green mass at the top is echoed by its muted reflection, separated by a horizon line above a blush of diffused color. There's a deliberate tension between representation and abstraction here. Editor: So you’re suggesting the painting is more about the interplay of color and shape than depicting an actual place? Curator: Precisely. The composition favors a distilled essence of landscape over literal depiction. This is evident in the handling of the paint itself. The effect is one of reduction and suggestion. Editor: I see what you mean. Looking closer, the forms really are simplified to their most basic elements. Thanks, I hadn't thought to consider it in such a structural way before.