Vesta 2013

Adam Caldwell made this arresting painting, Vesta, with oils on canvas. The brushwork is loose, and there are visible layers, especially in the background, which gives the whole piece a sense of something being caught, or glimpsed. Caldwell’s use of color and texture create a really specific mood here, I think. Look at how the red outline of the object in the figure’s hand creates this dynamic tension with the flesh tones. You get a sense of heat, of a contained fire, from the orange hues around her shoulder. Then there’s the more graphic mark-making around the lower body, which almost dissolves into these broad strokes of white, pink, and brown. The whole image hovers between abstraction and figuration. It feels contemporary, yet echoes the grandiosity and drama of Baroque painting. You could almost see the influence of someone like Caravaggio in the way Caldwell plays with light and shadow, using those strong contrasts to create emotional depth. Art is just one big conversation, right?