Cities and Towns (2)

My last posting discussed ways that artists depict urban and some suburban landscapes and I mentioned that my husband and I are drawn to those paintings that convey a certain sense of emptiness and mystery. You've probably seen "Early Sunday Morning," a well-known work by Edward Hopper, a master of this style. Even when his paintings include humans (for example, in "Night Hawks"), there is an undeniable quality of isolation surrounding them.

I don't remember how I first came across the work of Karen Perl (karenperl.com), a Chicago watercolor and oil painter, but I was immediately struck by the silence and perhaps dread in her urban series. These paintings instruct us about the places we live and visit--and that we might lose to decay, demolition, or far more serious and irreversible threats. The scenes are satisfyingly pared down almost to abstraction. Though they represent Chicago, they could be almost anywhere. (See "Halstead Lake," 1^st image above.)

Her "Disappear" series is particularly haunting. In some of the paintings in this suite, I'm reminded of Hopper's Early Sunday Morning, because the areas depicted seem as though during a workday, they would be populated by active people going about their business. They would be energetic. Yet, in her treatments, only the streets, buildings, and other symbols of city life appear, as if in a mirage. In other paintings, there is a definite sense that the area has been abandoned--either by choice or accident. The images are very thought-provoking and unnerving, as if the population has fled, or is hiding behind close doors and windows, frightened.

Karen's watercolors are less unsettling, taking a long, and not incidentally, "green" view of a road. These are beautiful works, yet in "Highway 57" (2^nd image above), the sunny sky seems about to be overcome by clouds. "Towards New Orleans" (3^rd image above) is one I like very much, but still, perhaps because of the devastation that that city has undergone in recent years, it too, is a little sad.

The watercolors are all in the "affordable range; that is, around $250.

Karen also paints pets and classical images, which you can see on her web site. Her work will be exhibited in November, 2009 at Packer Schopf Gallery, 942 West Lake Street, Chicago, 60607, 312-226-8984. If you live in the area, try to get over there.