Life in Motion

Abstract

The kind of color that fascinates Cynthia Rosen these days reflects our common understanding of the word. But rather than simply mirroring the landscape's hues, her use of color instead conveys the dynamism and ever-changing atmosphere of a scene. Spirited, knife-edged marks add a strong sense of rhythm and movement to what some artists might render as a more static scene. While Rosen appreciates traditional plein-air landscapes and loves to look at and learn from them, she describes her own, more contemporary style--which has quickly gained a broad collector following--as "dancing on the boundary between impressionism and abstraction." It offers suggestions and visual possibilities but always leaves room for "imagination and heart," she says. She discovered this artistic place the same way she has found almost everything in her life: by following her own independent path. She experimented with various styles before settling on one that expresses her experience of the natural world. It starts with a canvas she has stained red, underscoring the vitality of life. She uses a palette knife almost exclusively, working quickly and often creating two or three paintings side by side.