Work in Progress
The work I am currently involved in centers on depicting "the void." This metaphysical journey to nowhere has to begin somewhere. Its beginning, although floating around long before, took physical form in my time spent in the west-central Mojave area. on the Amargosa desert. Being wrapped in, and somewhat isolated on, that vast plain made me want to paint the feel of desert space, the lack of verticality, the lack of atmospheric space, the lack of a middle ground, the void which makes the desert a place to flee from -- or to immerse oneself in.
But to get nowhere, one must begin somewhere. I began with Rackstraw Downes' panoramic paintings, some of which he did in the Texas flatlands. I was helped in my thinking by the writings of William L. Fox, particularly The Void, The Grid, and the Sign, where he writes of the eastern edge of the Basin and Range territory of which the Mojave is the prime participant. And I began reading about panoramas, those entertainments for the masses in the 19th century, built to make participants as well as spectators out of the clientele.
To get nowhere, one must begin somewhere. And so, thinking of panoramas, I painted one. This one is in a different desert, the eastern Oregon High desert, just north of where the real basin and range territory begins. I painted the panorama "From the Diamond Grade" in four days, on-site, at Diamond, Oregon, 30 miles from Steens Mountain at the edge of the Basin and Range country. It consists of seven panels, each 16 inches wide and 12 inches high, for a total size of 12" x 112".
Here is panel 1, the eastern edge of the pano:
Panel 2
Panel 3
As you may be able to tell, we are moving, slowly across the plain, from the butte on the painter's left toward the front center of the scene.
Panel 4
And now the time of day is changing, the sun has moved to a mid-day position, the relief is flattening.
Panel 5
This is the time when the day has the flattest light, the least relief, for the body as well as for the eyes. This is the time of day in which time itself seems suspended. Nothing happens, no shadows are cast, nothing is coming or going. It lasts only an instant -- but it seems forever.
Panel 6
But time returns, the sun in on the right, to the west. The shadows begin their slow tentative creep across the land.
Panel 7
And then, we are back to the butte, to the right this time, where the westering sun has begun to flick shadows from the edges of rocks and sage. It's dinner time at the Diamond Hotel, and time for the painter to step back and see if the pano fits together:
From the Diamond Grade, 12 x 112, Oil on masonite, 2009
This was the first step to the void, a journey which will continue....
For a bit of the continuation, you can check out another set of panels, from the Amargosa Desert in Nevada; click here
All the images and work are copyrighted by June O. Underwood.
