Chauncey Secrist, “The Dinner Party,” oil on canvas, 36″ x 48″
Salt Lake City artist Chauncey Secrist’s latest work has been inspired by the “grey clouds that hang over the tops of the mountains after a storm. “ That influence, he says, has spawned a series of abstract oil paintings “vaguely resembling obscured landscapes.” But another of his recent paintings, “The Dinner Party,” was compared by someone to a combination of Cezanne and Kandinsky. “What a great and flattering comparison,” says Chauncey, “especially since I’ve had Kandinsky on the brain lately.
“Sometimes I get fixated on a specific piece of art. Lately it’s been Composition VII. I’m not sure why. It just popped in my head one day and hasn’t left yet. I wasn’t even consciously aware of its influence until it was pointed out to me. ‘Composition VII’ is just such a beautiful piece, so full of energy and wild color. It’s as if all of the rigid elements of art are exploding in a hot mess on the canvas.”
Wassily Kandinsky, Composition VII, 1913, oil on canvas, 79″ x 119″
A graduate of the University of Utah, Ann Poore is a freelance writer and editor who spent most of her career at The Salt Lake Tribune. She was the 2018 recipient of the Salt Lake City Mayor’s Artist Award in the Literary Arts.
Categories: Daily Bytes | Who Do You Love
I love it that you caused me to stop and look at those wonderful pieces of art by those accomplished artists. Thank you.
Curious that the artist says ‘vaguely resembling obscured landscapes.’ Maybe I took too many drugs a quarter century ago, but I clearly see a jazz combo, replete with musicians and instruments, afloat on the emotional and cerebral presence of the music they’re creating.
Give it a try.