Passing Through 2012

Rochelle Blumenfeld made this painting, 'Passing Through,' using what looks like oil on canvas, and it's just over 2 feet wide. I love how the strokes of white, tan, and brown paint read as both abstract marks and also as some sort of landscape, maybe wind blowing through reeds in a marsh. There's a real sense of movement. You can almost feel the breeze. The bottom is dark, thick, almost muddy. But the top is light, almost airy. Look how the long brushstrokes are layered on top of each other, some thick and opaque, some thin and translucent. And what about that title, 'Passing Through?' It makes me think about the fleeting nature of experience, how everything is always in motion, always changing. This reminds me a bit of Joan Mitchell's landscapes, in how she evoked raw emotion, the feel of a place, rather than a literal representation. It's a painting that embraces the ambiguity and complexity of the world.