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Southern Skies and Southern Pines

Artist Roger Brown (American, 1941 - 1997)
Date1977
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 72 x 72 inches (182.88 x 182.88 cm)
Credit LineGift of Norman and Elaine Polsky, Fixtures Furniture, Kansas City
Object numberF86-50/1
On View
Not on view
Collections
DescriptionIn the top 2/3 of the canvas are 6 horizontal layers of stylized, diagonally angled clouds. are grey and white; the top layer is fairly dark, and each layer gradually becomes lighter. the canvas are 4-1/2 horizontal layers of diagonally angled, brown parcels of land. divided off by lines or green trees. The trees in the top layer are fairly light, gradually becoming dark at the bottom of the canvas. among the trees and parcels are 7 little people, 2 billboards, 2 wire fences, some other trees, and 3 large tGallery Label
Southern Skies and Southern Pines depicts a highway scene that Roger Brown probably observed during road trips at the time the work was painted. The landscape, sky, trucks, billboards and human figures are so simplified and systematically organized that they become patterns. The main organizing pattern, a zigzag that continues from lines of shrubbery through cloud formations, is interrupted by Brown's use of atmospheric perspective at the horizon line. Here, colors are muted to give the illusion of distance. Brown's manipulation of light is seen in the shadows cast by the figures in the painting. While some are directed toward the right edge of the painting, others fall toward the left, defying natural laws of illumination from a single light source.
Copyright© Roger Brown
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