With its green, yellow and orange colours, visible horizontal and vertical textures and shapes resembling the sun or the moon, clouds and, perhaps, a river, Then the Rain Came by John Varden is an abstract representation of a landscape.
Created in gouache on stretched paper the artwork is both aesthetically pleasing to the eye and artistically accomplished as per colour combination, composition and rhythm.
“Although inspired by nature, my work does not simply depict exact renditions of the subject but through the colours, images and techniques used I try to express my feelings about the subject. At times, the choice of media (e.g. collage) can influence the way a work will develop, often leading to a more abstract approach.
My current work is mainly based around landscape, but I also enjoy illustration and at times I produce work in this area”, says the artist.
There is always a dosage of mystery surrounding an abstract painting as the viewers can interpret it as they like, but sometimes, the artists give out clues, making that interpretation a little bit easier.
Regarding our ‘Artwork of the Week’, although we know it is a landscape, we don’t know whether it is daytime or night time, whether it is autumn or spring or whether we see a lake or a field and that’s the beauty of it as the image can match the viewers’ perception, whatever that perception might be.
