Wolfgang Goethe was once quoted as saying that "[t]here is nothing insignificant in the world. It all depends on the point of view." In the past week, I have paid a visit to the Art Central Fine Art Gallery in Summerville and can testify to the truth of Goethe's words. Amidst the foot traffic, dining tables, and specialty shops that adorned Central Avenue sits a rather unassuming art gallery. Going from point A to point B, traversing this street was only a means to an end. However, upon encountering the gallery, point B became less interesting. Walking by, my gaze fell upon the showcase in the window. A fireplace, completely accessorized, with a large painting and subject of my paper hanging above the hearth. The painting was Alexandra Kassing's "Worth the Wait," the centerpiece for the gallery's November exhibit, "Magic Hour."
The painting, a 30x40 oil-on-canvas, depicts a subject matter of two kayakers in what appear to be the marshy regional inter-coastal waterways at sundown. "Worth the Wait" takes on an impressionist style, with its seeming use of plein-air painting. If one were to hazard a guess, they could purport that the artist set up shop with an easel in Isle of Palms and began painting subjects in the waterway below. The medium, as previously mentioned, is oil. The lake weeds rising from that water are painted with fine and heavily-layered brush strokes, creating impasto. Texture is abound in the waterways and the evening sky, albeit with loose, coarse brushwork at play. The setting sun serves as the painting's focal point, a dying radiance still demanding attention. Reflections in the waterway below establish an implied line of sight leading to the background; the break in the trees and sky where the sun appears to be setting. The boaters serve as centers of interest in the foreground, where the only other objects of note are rows of lake weeds. The color scheme is largely cool, with the use of various hues of blue and green in the waterway and the background tree line. All vegetation and trees sport off-black green and blue hues, despite appearing almost exclusively black in the attached image. However, the skyline adopts a warm primary color scheme, with blues, reds, and yellows, clashing for dominance as the sun fades.
This work stood out to me solely for its composition. More than anything, "Worth the Wait" evoked pangs of nostalgia stemming from its tranquil subject matter. Up until two years ago when I first started attending university, I was a lifelong resident of upstate New York. Having lived in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountain Range and having been descended from woodsmen of the same, the subject matter revived many a summer in my mind. Memories resurface of summer afternoons kayaking vast lakes, snaking amongst the serpentine channels therein formed by walls of cattails and pond weed. "Worth the Wait" elicits a dark and comforting silence through its use of chiaroscuro to bathe its subjects in a light quickly disappearing. This scene is one where the world is still likely alive and bustling in the final hours of day but for that one place, where quiet was always king. Goethe stated, "There is nothing insignificant in the world. It all depends on the point of view." While many look upon Kassing's work and see a simple impression of a Low-country waterway, I see memories of a place far from here; a place I long to be in again. "Worth the Wait" gives meaning to Goethe's words, and I couldn't be happier for it.
Conscious of copyright law, the aforementioned work will remain without reproduction here, but still can be found at https://artcgalleryltd.com/artistofmonth.htmlhttps://artcgalleryltd.com/artistofmonth.html
