The patterning of stripes documents the journey along the trail, revealing the colors winter created in the landscape. For me, the painting also functions as a map, each color marking the location where it was found.
Debra Ramsay,
When I think about rhythm, the concept of pattern soon appears. The paintings were generated by the rhythm of nature—each season, a year passing. I collected colors seasonally to document how the landscape changes from spring through winter.
My body merged with the rhythm. Returning to the same hiking trail, in the same forest, once, each season; walking, pausing each 100 steps, to take a photo. I digitally extracted a color from a photograph (creating paint to match that exact color) to trace the season.
“For me, the painting also functions as a map, each color marking the location where it was found.”
The patterning of stripes documents the journey along the trail, revealing the colors winter created in the landscape. For me, the painting also functions as a map, each color marking the location where it was found.
Every walk on the trail (each season) yielded 18 colors. 72 colors document the full year. While I captured only one year in this project, I find comfort in how long this rhythm has been keeping on.
[portfolio_slideshow id=6899 exclude=”6901,6918″]
Debra Ramsay is an abstract artist working in the disciplines of painting, drawing and installation. She maintains a full time studio practice in New York City. Ramsay was awarded a 2016 residency at the Albers Foundation, a 2013 residency at the Golden Foundation in New Berlin, NY and in 2012 a fellowship at BAU Institute in Otranto, Italy. Ramsay’s 2014 exhibition venues included Hansel and Gretel Picture Garden Pocket Utopia in Chelsea, NYC and The Visual Arts Center of NJ, Summit, NJ. In 2013 she had a solo show titled MAT/tam, curated by Lucio Pozzi at Palazzo Costa, in Mantova, Italy . She has upcoming shows at TSA Gallery in Brooklyn and Pentimenti Gallery in Philadelphia.
Watch Debra Ramsay discuss her Landscape as Time project with Jill Connor as part of “The Introducing Series,” conversations between emerging artists and advocates of their work.
View additional works and Debra’s studio at Structure and Imagery.
For more information, visit Debra’s website at debraramsay.com.
Subscribe to Tilted Arc
If you like this story, please consider subscribing. We are sticklers for privacy.
We will never sell or share your e-mail address.
-
Jen Mazza: \ /\/\/\/\/\ /\\\\\\\\\///////////\ A Painting Is A Machine
I like a painting that does something, like a machine does something: you turn it on and it functions “Since Courbet, it’s been believed that painting is addressed to the retina.…The retinal shudder!” — Marcel Duchamp1 shudder // shutter The click of the shutter, the click of the cliché, but lets come back to that […]
-
In Conversation: Gary Green with Ben Lisle
If we can see the grace in quotidian landscapes and our everyday routines then perhaps we can begin to make better choices. Gary Green, Elm City, 2015. All images: © & courtesy the artist. BEN LISLEOne of the things that strikes me first when looking at these photos is this tension between a thoroughly human […]
-
Engagement, baby’s mittens Engagement, baby’s mittens, ocean floor, Palermo rose, Lake Tahoe, timid white, Iguana green, blue echo, sycamore, Unspoken love, dark lilac, nighty night. Tomato tango, tint of mint, rustique, Petunia, modern romance, wild mush- Room, vintage claret, Celtic folklore, week- End get-away, alfresco, royal flush. Plum martini, Oklahoma wheat; Confetti, evening skyline, sun-kissed […]