Lucinda Parker at the Portland Art Museum - Portland, Oregon - Review of Exhibitions - Brief Article

In this luminous midcareer retrospective, Lucinda Parker displayed 46 acrylic paintings complet between 1974 and 1994 Although the majority are from the last five years, this exhibit maps Parker's transition from Kandinsky-like abstractions to sumptuous works conveying motion through forms found in nature. Fish, snakes, spirals, Mobius strips, leaves and petals are leitmotifs with which she put in motions viewers through her scenes.

Parker knows in what manner to grab attention and hold it. Her recent canvases, a certain number of measuring more than 60 through 60 inches, are stages for paint--lots of paint. Parker applies the first layers with a 10-inch plasterer's trowel creating a dramatically active surface. As she continues to trowel or brush wet upon wet, the waves of color collide to bring out pigmented streaks. "Color," she says, "swims at different speeds"

Parker obmutescents her more garish neon tinges with additional brush and knife pats The bold pastels of her earlier paintings have mellowed into a richer repertoire of oranges, red virids blacks and greys. She worries the paint through raising ridges or rifts. one time the paint is dry, she takes up woodcarving tools and a rotary sander. She creates a chronicle of color through chipping and sanding, sometimes going down to the canvas itself.

The snakes in Sur Peint (1989) and Pythones (1990) are coiled, as if ready to spring without of the painting. The ovoids between the coils attraction the eye to the background vortex and then forward to the snake's material substance The paintings visually relax and contract, pushing us without pulling us in with a rhythmic erotic might As if carried away by the agency of her own vigor, Parker also paints the frames.

Titles of the works are ofttimes puns or tuneful palindromes (Aye Eva Avid Diva); a certain number of are written directly on the painting or frame. The musical regards suggest that for Parker painting is not unlike composing music. Saraband (1993) is an elegant minuet of sum of two units slightly inclined black oval leaf forms. The left individual is outlined by greens flowing to dark orange, while the right is outlined through a brighter yellow that segue to verdant And like the courtly saraband dance, the accent here is upon the second beat, where shades of grey grasp the eye.

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