Vista 2007

Curator: This Daan Lemaire piece, titled "Vista," created in 2007 using acrylic on canvas, just vibrates with an airy freedom. What hits you first about it? Editor: Raw exuberance, definitely. It’s pure summer, a bottled explosion of light, shadows, and wet greenery. It's interesting how he leaves that open space in the middle almost like a void... a pregnant pause. Curator: I think of it as an invitation to the viewer, like stepping into that space where the trees let the sky peek through, right? Notice how the color story echoes nature with golden light, leaf greens and grounded browns that feels alive... Editor: Absolutely! There's that controlled chaos...the blues popping like little rebellions among the greens and yellows that feel very symbolic. Are those anxieties creeping into paradise? Curator: Ha! Possibly... there’s also something about the splashes of color that feels utterly unburdened, maybe like how children see the world: unfiltered and joyful. Editor: I think that is it... a return to innocence! I can't stop seeing water nymph and woodland creatures and the space gives way to pure fantasy. Curator: Well, the work also resonates, for me, with Impressionism's fascination with capturing fleeting moments and light—but freed from the literal. The gesture of it… it suggests something primal about our connection with the natural world. Editor: Agreed! And with Lemaire’s focus on form and gesture it definitely has those abstract expressionist qualities where color dictates emotion. It really shows us nature less as it is, and more how it *feels*. Curator: Precisely. "Vista" is such a simple title, but maybe that is the whole idea...it captures something about the essential way we gaze out at the world and soak it in. What does the Vista leave you with? Editor: This little visual feast is making me want to abandon this studio and just find a sun dappled hideaway! How about you?