Susan Post

Not only is “Grey Checkerboard” (oil on linen, 16″ x 20″, 2010) neither square nor based on a composition of seven alternating bands of color, but is unusual for me also because the colors  are built up from transparent layers applied wet-on-wet. My more usual method, as seen in “A Different Kind of Line” (oil on linen, 20″ x 20″, 2011) is to mix colors on the palette table, and apply them as opaque layers, adjusting subsequently for hue but mostly for value. Both of these paintings, though, deal with the red/green complementary relationship, and use a mixture of the two to make a neutral third color that acts as contrast. In Different Line the brown is used to induce a very subtle effect of relative color perception closely related to simultaneous contrast: the brown on the left side where the pink predominates appears ever so slightly greener than the exact same brown on the right side, where green makes up most of the remaining area. In Checkerboard, the dark green/grey is a mixture of the Alizarin Crimson and Perylene Green that are seen tinted with white in the alternating squares. In this painting, the colors closest in value are also the farthest apart in hue, while the marked distinction in value is mediated by the blending of the hues.  Multiple, ambiguous interpretations  that alternate between vertical or horizontal ‘pink’ and ‘green’ stripes and dark rosettes, cause shifts over time in the perception of which colors appear to come forward and which recede.  -Sue Post, 2012