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The View From Inside: Tiny Interiors Paintings by Eleanor Ray

November 9, 2015 by Fosco Lucarelli 1 Comment

Although still very young, artist Eleanor Ray has already established herself as an important voice in modern painting. What contrasts with her critical success are the unassuming subjects and the tiny size of her canvases: all that she paints are minuscule familiar landscapes, interiors, and urban scenes in a fairly conventional technique. Nevertheless, her defensive posture (which intrigued art critic Jed Perl, for his piece “The Rectangular Canvas is Dead. Richard Diebenkorn and the problems of modern painting“) is contradicted by a psychological introspection into the depicted scenes as well as a virtuoso use of colour: as explained by John Goodrich on Hyperallergic, “she weights hues so that they tangibly embody, rather than merely denote, the visual aspects of a scene“.

Doors and windows are often visible in her paintings, in a sort of “frame within the frame” approach. She comments: “Often the things outside seem to relate to the window’s shape, or the grid of its panes, in the way that the interior of a painting relates to its own edges. (…) The frame of a window or doorway takes on a clear relationship to the painting’s flat surface. And it can have a figurative presence that remains anonymous but not totally impartial.”

Although obviously figurative, the subject matter of their paintings denotes an interest in abstraction: only when the artist is removed from a familiar scene, she admits, she is able to paint it, as if only in that condition she was “seeing something more basic — its abstract qualities — rather than my particular associations with the place“.

 

Studio I 2012, Oil on Four Panels, 5 x 5" each

Studio I
2012, Oil on Four Panels, 5 x 5″ each

 

 

The Courts 2012, Oil on Panel, 5 x 7"

The Courts
2012, Oil on Panel, 5 x 7″

 

 

Sculpture Studio at Dusk 2013, Oil on Panel, 5 7/16 x 6"

Sculpture Studio at Dusk
2013, Oil on Panel, 5 7/16 x 6″

 

 

Empty Lot 2013, Oil on Panel, 4 1/2 x 6"

Empty Lot
2013, Oil on Panel, 4 1/2 x 6″

 

 

Light on the Wall 2014, Oil on Panel, 7 x 5 3/4"

Light on the Wall
2014, Oil on Panel, 7 x 5 3/4″

 

 

Mike's Room 2012, Oil on Panel, 3 15/16 x 4 7/8"

Mike’s Room
2012, Oil on Panel, 3 15/16 x 4 7/8″

 

 

Avital's Studio 2013, Oil on Panel, 5 x 6"

Avital’s Studio
2013, Oil on Panel, 5 x 6″

 

 

Fireflies 2012, Oil on Panel, 3 7/16 x 4 7/16"

Fireflies
2012, Oil on Panel, 3 7/16 x 4 7/16″

 

 

Cracked Door 2012, Oil on Panel, 3 3/8 x 5"

Cracked Door
2012, Oil on Panel, 3 3/8 x 5″

 

 

Studio Wall 2012, Oil on Panel, 4 x 5"

Studio Wall
2012, Oil on Panel, 4 x 5″

 

 

January Windows 2014, Oil on Panel, 6 4/16 x 7 13/16"

January Windows
2014, Oil on Panel, 6 4/16 x 7 13/16″

 

 

Apartment 16 2012, Oil on Panel, 3 7/8 x 5"

Apartment 16
2012, Oil on Panel, 3 7/8 x 5″

 

 

Vail Courts 2012, Oil on Panel, 3 x 5"

Vail Courts
2012, Oil on Panel, 3 x 5″

 

 

Waterfront Warehouses 2012, Oil on Panel, 4 x 4 7/8"

Waterfront Warehouses
2012, Oil on Panel, 4 x 4 7/8″

 

 

Lawn Chair 2013, Oil on Panel, 5 x 6"

Lawn Chair
2013, Oil on Panel, 5 x 6″

 

 

San Marco 2013, Oil on Panel, 5 7/16 x 7"

San Marco
2013, Oil on Panel, 5 7/16 x 7″

 

 

View From the Kitchen (Poems on the Wall) 2013, Oil on Panel, 5 x 6"

View From the Kitchen (Poems on the Wall)
2013, Oil on Panel, 5 x 6″

 

 

Lobby Studio 2013, Oil on Panel, 4 4/16 x 6"

Lobby Studio
2013, Oil on Panel, 4 4/16 x 6″

 

 

March Windows 2013, Oil on Panel, 4 x 5"

March Windows
2013, Oil on Panel, 4 x 5″

 

 

Big Painting Studio 2013, Oil on Panel, 6 x 5"

Big Painting Studio
2013, Oil on Panel, 6 x 5″

 

 

Detour 2012, Oil on Panel, 5 x 6"

Detour
2012, Oil on Panel, 5 x 6″

 

 

56 Bogart 2013, Oil on Panel, 4 1/2 x 6"

56 Bogart
2013, Oil on Panel, 4 1/2 x 6″

 

 

NYC Department of Buildings (Construction Window) 2012, Oil on Panel, 5 x 7"

NYC Department of Buildings (Construction Window)
2012, Oil on Panel, 5 x 7″

 

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Comments

  1. Edie Layland says

    November 11, 2015 at 9:57 pm

    I love these! Each one is a jewel.

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