Sand Storm 1932

Agnes Lawrence Pelton made this painting, Sand Storm, with oils, but when? The surface is built up with glazes, so it feels smooth, a bit dreamy; all those layers are built up to create a kind of inner light. I’m drawn to how Pelton uses color, especially that pale rainbow – it’s almost like she’s painting light itself. Look at the flower-like shape at the top, it seems to emerge from the surrounding clouds, and the soft gradations of color give the whole composition a sense of movement and transformation, as if this is one moment in an ongoing process. Pelton was interested in the spiritual, the mystical, and you can see that in her whole body of work. Think about Hilma af Klint, another artist working at the same time, exploring similar ideas. It’s like they were both tapping into something beyond the visible world, using paint to explore the unseen.