Hue, intensity and value are the properties of color. In Colorscapes, the 4^th and final exhibition of the season at BCK Fine Arts Gallery @Montauk, these properties are explored in depth. For the artists in this show, the investigation of the element of color is portrayed through landscapes. Some of the paintings are recognizable, others are more abstract. Some of the artists have always focused on strong color, no matter what the subject matter. Others have progressed on this pathway over time. What binds them together in this presentation is their use of COLOR.

Monica Bernier’s practice of doing abstract collage is a factor in all her work. The use of collage and cutouts has allowed her to better explore the dynamics of pure color relationships. The range of expression that color can evoke is of great interest to Monica. From subtle neutrals to screaming lumi pigments, color can function much like the scope of sound in music or the voice in theater. Cutouts have also allowed her to play with pure shape relationships and explore their dancing interactions.

John Goodrich’s hope for his landscapes is that they characterize their subjects in ways unique to painting: through the rhythmic interactions of the forms they take on canvas. While he acknowledges that the properties of color are stressed in every painting class, he has also written, “. . . it is impossible to teach what truly characterizes color, which is its compositional weight, the way it shifts and leverages other colors.

For Al Kresch, the aim and desire are to create a synthesis of structure and freedom and to make paintings that create their own light rather than imitate the observed light of nature. He states that his work has gone from abstract to a combination of representational and semi-abstract which is where it is now.

To artist Bruce Lieberman, color is the whole game. He likens it to conducting a symphony - playing jazz - letting yourself get lost in the composing, balancing, absorbing and interpreting of all that is perceived. Sensations and opportunities are simultaneously exploited, while always remaining cognizant of color relationships, and the subtle, and not too subtle, harmonies that one imposes or that reveal themselves as one plays.

These new paintings of Kevin Wixted have their genesis in the form of on-site watercolor studies done during his travels throughout the Yucatan Peninsula and time spent on the North Fork of Long Island. Each work begins as an observed meditation on nature as he spend days in the landscape capturing the phenomena of his surroundings. Kevin uses these experiences as a starting point for larger studio paintings in acrylic and oil, exploring the immersive qualities of landscape. Using projections of the watercolor images, he concentrates on building an abstract language of rhythm, pattern and color interaction.