Hoag is celebrating a one-woman show at The Gallery at Maine Art Hill in Kennebunk at 14 Western Avenue. This show opens Saturday, September 25, and runs until October 7. The doors open every day at 10 AM.
“The simplification, abstraction, and color choices come together to give it an open but also warm and comforting feeling of place,” says artist Liz Hoag.
Hoag’s current work is a refining of her ideas about composition, color, and light. In this work, she sheds realistic or narrative detail while retaining ideas. For example, more than depicting a detailed image of a place, the work retains a sense of place, but the most clearly defined ties to a specific location are absent.
“I use the woods as a starting point for an abstract idea. Then, by intentionally cropping the view, I consciously retain a substantive structural focal point within the composition,” shares Hoag. “I use other elements that guide the audience to look around the space and return to the focal point. The forms from nature I choose to retain are weighted and colored in a way that makes the viewer feel sure of their footing, feel balanced, feel comfortable.”
Hoag’s use of color and value gives depth to the realistic space at the same time it aids in the abstract two and three-dimensional balance. With different palette choices in each work, there is often a sense of season and time of day as well. This adds to the comfort the viewer experiences and a feel of a defined place.
“My use of negative space between trees or other elements enhances the push and pull of both the depth of the imagined landscape and the flat plane of the canvas,” explains Hoag. “It helps us travel through the space in more than one dimension. And I love the interplay that often comes off like stained glass.”
Artists learn to make forms turn in space and mimic what we see. Hoag is growing out of that system of seeing. She is looking for a connection to the real world that is more sensory and abstract than constructed.
“I still retain a feeling of solidity in wood or tree without the constraints of super-realistic painting. The work is not impressionist but contains impressionist elements,” says Hoag. “It maintains a solid base structure with light and color as interrelated collaborative elements.”
To learn more about this artist, follow the links below
Liz Hoag’s Artist Insights and Stories
Liz Hoag’s Complete Collection at Maine Art Hill