Mist 2013

Charles Gibbons made "Mist" with confident horizontal strokes of paint. I can imagine him building up the surface, color by color, until something resembling a landscape appears! There’s this gorgeous push-pull of warm and cool, dark and light, that gives the whole thing a real sense of depth. The red and blue at the top seem to hover over that sunny yellow layer, while the lower half dissolves into a misty horizon line. It’s like Gibbons is inviting us to lose ourselves in a world of pure color and sensation. You know, there’s something about the way he applies the paint that reminds me of Gerhard Richter, but with a much warmer palette. It shows how artists are always in conversation, taking cues from one another and pushing the boundaries of what painting can be. For me, Gibbons' painting is an exploration of color and a playful invitation to explore the beauty of ambiguity.