JOSEPH M. HUTCHINSON
2 CHAPALA ROAD
SANTA FE, NM 87508
505-466-1366
profjmh@gmail.com
Web Sites:
www.jmjutchinson.com (USA)
www.saatchionline.com (UK)
http://josephhutchinson.see.me/ (USA)
STATEMENT
When I started my professional painting career, I worked extensively in abstract expressionism. Over time, my art has taken several investigations into expressionistic landscape and still life motifs. Most recently, I have begun to explore what is possible in the representation of the human figure.
This may have started when I taught for seven semesters in Italy and studied the work of the Renaissance and Baroque masters. However, I was schooled in Modernism and embraced the ideas of change, process and invention. The question became evident — how to develop a contemporary figurative motif and remain true to that Modernist concept?
The figures I paint are purposefully authentic in pose and body language but I often make their bodies melt into the background and their faces become almost anonymous in a kind of metamorphosis. I deliberately place them into metaphysical environments that amplify their aloneness, alienation and anxiety. As well, the perspectives are distorted to disturb the viewer and to question what he or she takes for granted. This enhances the painting’s mystery and makes it reach into the viewer’s reservoir of human experience.
I have used these aesthetics in abstract compositions, in still life and in landscape paintings. The solid forms seem to be on the verge of dissolution and the empty spaces become visually solid. I like to use counterpoints— rough up the edges, add texture in the underpainting and mess up the geometry — to reflect the uncertainty and contradiction of what we know of the natural world,
As well, I work hard to make sure some small passages are carefully detailed — a push-and-pull with the ambitious sections. I try to generate small feelings — little moments of discovery, beauty and sensation that hold the viewers attention.
Change is the only constant in our century.....