Valley of Stone 1989

Ronnie Landfield made ‘Valley of Stone’ with loose washes of paint. The way he works is all about process, watching how the colors interact and bleed into each other to create something new. Up close, you can see how thin the paint is, almost like watercolor, letting the light bounce off the canvas, and giving everything a hazy, dreamlike quality. The colors are soft and muted, mostly oranges, yellows, and blues, like a sunset viewed through fog. Look at the way the darker blues at the bottom bleed upwards. It's really simple, but it creates a kind of depth that pulls you in. I’m reminded of Helen Frankenthaler, who also worked with these kinds of stains, but Landfield's got something else going on, a more grounded, earthy feel. It’s like he’s capturing a fleeting moment. There’s no right or wrong way to see it, it's all about what you bring to it.