![\"fresh](\"http:\/\/patriciaclaro.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/fresh-paint.png\")
<\/p>\nEssay by Selene Wendt<\/p>\n
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Patricia Claro\u2019s realist landscape paintings are related to an intense and time-consuming study of water and its characteristics. Claro\u2019s highly scientific high-tech approach to painting is a perfect example of James Elkins\u2019s theory that painting is\u00a0alchemy, and a painter\u2019s role is that of an alchemist. In his groundbreaking book\u00a0What Paint Is, he compares artists\u2019 thorough knowledge of the substance of painting (regardless of what it represents pictorially, and regardless of art historical references),\u00a0how paints can be mixed and what happens when they come in contact with other materials, to alchemy. He states that: \u201cArtists become expert in distinguishing\u00a0between gloss and wetness\u2014and they do so without knowing how they do it, or how chemicals create their effects.\u201d12 Although it is quite clear that Claro\u00a0knows precisely what she is doing, this observation bears relevance in relation to\u00a0her skillful approach to capturing the reflection of light, wind, and other atmospheric\u00a0conditions on the surface of water.<\/p>\n
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Patricia Claro\u2019s stunningly beautiful paintings are far more than a contemporary\u00a0twist on romantic landscape painting. Underneath the glossy, shimmering surfaces\u00a0of her paintings, we find depth and conceptual meaning. It turns out that these\u00a0paintings aren\u2019t landscapes in the traditional sense, they are something as paradoxically simple and complex as the concept of time made visible. She captures the notion of temporality by first filming the flow of water over an extended period of\u00a0time. In what could be interpreted as a subtle tribute toMonet, she films variations\u00a0in light intensity during the course of a day, also revealing the various changes that\u00a0naturally occur to water due to changing atmospheric conditions. The sequence of\u00a0images that are captured within the film give a sense of endless continuity, or even\u00a0infinity. The temporality of a particular moment, as represented in each single painting,\u00a0stands in contrast to the notion of the eternal flow of water.<\/p>\n
Symbolically, a river is an apt metaphor relating to the passage of time. The evanescent, endlessly changing patterns and reflections in the water are difficult to capture, and even harder to recreate, which is precisely what makes these glossy\u00a0paintings shine so brightly. The paintings featured in Fresh Paint represent a sequence\u00a0of four images from the same place. The final paintings capture moments\u00a0that are only seconds apart, although the visual differences are tremendous. With\u00a0these paintings, Claro reveals not only the various qualities of water; she does so\u00a0in a way that evokes its transparency, lucidity, and reflective qualities, far beyond\u00a0the wetness and glossiness that Elkins had in mind.<\/p>\n
With the aid of contemporary technology, using video instead of the more standard\u00a0photography, Claro brings landscape painting into a contemporary timeframe and\u00a0frame of reference. One could spend a considerable amount of time delving beneath\u00a0the surface of her works to decipher the scientific aspects, including the\u00a0physics of wave patterns, advanced mathematics, and scientific questions relating to how the human eye perceives the travel of light through space.While these are all highly relevant aspects of her work, the power of these paintings is far more visceral, related not so much to the formal practice of painting as it is to notions of evanescence and the passing of time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"