The Gloaming

Ellen Nemetz’s The Gloaming is a beguiling combination of abstraction and figuration. On the one hand, the wildly beautiful washes of acrylic blues, turquoises, and greens intersected by golden organic passages of yellow can appear entirely abstract. On the other hand, the picture presents an almost photo-realistic representation of the setting sun reflected on the surface of a still pond. It is not uncommon for abstraction to give way to figuration and vice versa, but the degree to which The Gloaming invites the seemingly competing interpretations is very unusual. It delivers freedom of definition (equally impactful and impressive in both cases) that can satisfy even the viewer most wedded to figuration and their abstract adherent counterparts.