Fog

Gina Werfel’s “Fog” presents a lyrical approach to abstract painting. Buried within the depths of cool grays and blue tones are collages segments of charcoal drawings, breaking the uniformity of the picture plane. Vivid bursts of gestural lines recall prominent 20th century American painters such as Stuart Davis, while these dampened tones - grays, blacks, whites - recall works by de Kooning of Pollock. Translucent layers of acrylic paint conceal and combine, alluding to a foggy scene in this portrait-oriented landscape. The grasp of gestural abstraction extends the legacy of abstraction expressionism in Werfel’s work, while the addition of collage adds visual texture to the scene and hints at surfaces such as buildings, trees and ground. Washes of color are broken into curvilinear areas across the picture plane, folding and bending into one another with grace and subtlety. The sublime balance of the overall composition relies upon the artist’s keen grasp of active mark-making and washes of subtle gradations of grays and blues, interspersed with orange, purple and green brush marks. Organic lines and circular marks hint at the volume produced by areas of fog settling over a landscape. Werfel here presents both the visual tones of fog, its icy white permutations, and also a distinct style of brushwork that hints at the direction and diffusive quality of fog. Bright colors sparingly peeking out from behind the veil of muted tones remind the viewer that an unknown landscape awaits discovery upon the fog’s lifting.