Something happened when you saw this. What was it?
Ephemeral Atmosphere · 2020
Deep Abstraction
Layers of Depth and Breathing Space
Available · in the studio, Phoenix
Depth and breathing space in the same surface — the painting that opens rather than fills the room.
Deep Abstraction (2020) is part of my Ephemeral Atmosphere Collection, created during a time when I was searching for spaces within spaces — those quiet, breathing interiors that exist beneath the noise. This 60 x 48 inch acrylic on canvas explores depth not as physical perspective, but as an emotional excavation.
The surface is layered with subtle washes of blues, grays, and muted whites, creating an atmosphere that invites slowness. Forms hover just beneath the surface, emerging and dissolving with each gaze, suggesting a shifting relationship between what is seen and what is felt.
In creating Deep Abstraction, I found myself in conversation with Vija Celmins, whose meticulous, meditative drawings of oceans and night skies offer portals into vast, unknowable spaces. Like Celmins, I am interested in how surface becomes a site of contemplation, how repetition and restraint create depth without the need for overt gesture.
Yet Deep Abstraction moves toward the atmospheric rather than the literal — it is less about depicting a space and more about offering one. It invites the viewer to exhale, to linger in the ambiguity, to let the painting become a place where boundaries soften and time slows.
As part of the Ephemeral Atmosphere Collection, this work asks: What spaces within ourselves do we avoid? And what might we find if we stay with them a little longer?
Where to see it. In person at RituStudio, Phoenix, by appointment. Represented by Jarrow & Goodman, Los Angeles.
The space it needs
- Wall
- At least 8 ft wide
- Ceiling
- 9 ft or more
- Light
- Natural light transforms this work — morning and evening light read differently
- Daylight
- Deep navy and graphite black keep it cool and stable through the day, with rust and chartreuse as small warm notes. Strong direct sun flattens the dark depths, so favor indirect light.
Lives best in
Living room 5/5
A score of 5: the five-foot span of graphite, rust, and chartreuse layers pulls a living room into genuine quietness, giving the central seating area something to breathe toward rather than merely look at.
Hotel lobby 5/5
A score of 5: the navy-to-graphite depth reads immediately across a wide lobby, and the softening boundaries ask nothing of a passing guest yet hold the room in place for those who pause.
Details
- Size
- 5 × 4 ft (W × H)
- Medium
- Acrylic on canvas
- Year
- 2020
- Collection
- Ephemeral Atmosphere
- Palette
- Graphite Black · Rust · Chartreuse · Deep Navy
- Weight
- About 45 lb
- Ready
- In the studio; delivery 6–10 weeks
Its ArtGram
ArtGram.Sprig
- Texture2
- Form1
- Colour range5
- Palette3
- Contrast3.6
- Abstraction Quotient4.5
