by Colin Callahan

Rainy Day, Harlan County Reservoir 2007, graphite, 10 x 14.

This drawing possesses the powerful sense of atmosphere one experiences when watching a storm over water. It would appear that the artist’s focus is on the cloud formation. The clouds—appearing to be mammatus clouds—are forming over the landmass in the distance. The huge vertical sweep and the size of the clouds draw the eye upward toward these ominous and bulbous clouds. If the mammatus clouds are the sole focus, then the artist has hit the mark. I personally would have chosen to emphasize the broad span of the horizon and the tonal shift from water to land to striated clouds to mammatus clouds by moving the bottom edge up slightly and dropping the top edge about a third—making sure that the water and the bulbous clouds do not match. This change would bring out the subtle tonal shifts of all the horizontals that are done so beautifully, but are lost in comparison to the huge expanding clouds above.

About the Critic
Colin J. Callahan teaches painting and art history at St. Paul's School, in Concord, New Hampshire, where he also runs the school's gallery. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from College of the Holy Cross, in Worcester, Massachusetts, and he studied painting at Centro Barbieri, in Rome, Italy. Callahan is represented by Anderson-Soule Gallery, in Concord, New Hampshire. To view the artist's work, visit http://www.colincallahan.com.

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Comments

It’s a cloudy day for the viewer with the artist in Harlan County. The artist confidently guides us through a visceral folding of references point from the massive foreground clouds to the regiment of rolling supporting behemoths within the storm.

Looking for understanding in the landscape’s circumstance and personality we rush to the land, a lowly strip esthetically placed out of reach, connecting as if in shadow with another horizon.

Quick now we look for signs of breaking water, they too are absent, as is vegetation or other signs of life.

Alone, the clouds alone take on increasing significant the more our eye is ushered around the drawing.

The artist having accomplished what is wanted from the viewer, a frame, has given thoughtful expression to the participatory uncertainty in weather, and in art.

There is no uncertainty regarding the artist's skillful execution, compositional fluidity, or ability to engage a viewer’s imagination.