Gordon Sizelove "Engaged Ii" Pastel on Paper, Abstract Dot Field Drawing in Marigold Orange, Carmel California Art, Original 11 X 14 Inches, 2024

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Warm dabs of marigold, tangerine, peach, cream and burgundy brown crowd the sheet in a loose honeycomb, glowing like a … Read more Warm dabs of marigold, tangerine, peach, cream and burgundy brown crowd the sheet in a loose honeycomb, glowing like a field of sunflowers or a cluster of lit lanterns. The darker burgundy touches sit between the yellows like seeds, and the cream ones lift out of the field like small highlights. The pastel is thick, chalky and slightly raised, so each dab keeps its shape, and the grain of the paper peeks through in places. Sizelove places color spots along a drawn, curving line and varies each one on purpose, and the even rhythm here gives the sheet a friendly, humming warmth.

A warm vertical for a kitchen, a breakfast room, a hallway or a bedroom that needs sunshine. Marigold and tangerine look rich beside walnut, cognac leather, cream plaster and terracotta, and they brighten blue or gray rooms. At fourteen by eleven inches it fits small walls and shelves, and it works in a pair or a trio of warm pieces.

Pastel on Paper, 11 x 14 x 0.5 in (27.9 × 35.6 × 1.3 cm). Unframed.

Sizelove's pastel works begin the way his paintings do, with a curved, flowing line that sets the movement of the sheet. Color is then built up along that line in short strokes and rounded dabs of pastel, each slightly different from its neighbor, until the whole surface is covered. The chalky pigment sits on the grain of the paper, and where marks overlap they blend into new tones. The work is on paper and unframed.

Gordon Sizelove (b. 1953, Boston) is a San Francisco painter who works in acrylic, pastel, charcoal and pencil. Raised in Springfield and Worcester, Massachusetts, he moved west in 1972 to attend the San Francisco Art Institute, studying with Sam Tchakalian, Julius Hatofsky, Tom Holland and Robert Hudson, and earned his MFA in Painting in 1979.

After a teaching credential from San Francisco State University, he taught art in the San Francisco public schools for decades, including students with dyslexia, and has painted full time since retiring in 2014. His work, shown in a 2023 Inter-Society Color Council exhibition in Rochester, builds interlocking patterns from spots and strokes of color placed along a drawn, curving line, in the spirit of Buckminster Fuller's geodesic structures and with a long interest in the consciousness of perception. He lives and works in San Francisco's South of Market district. See less