Dorothy Churchill-Johnson: PATTERN and REALISM, in Search of the Big Picture is comprised of three themes of large-scale oil paintings on canvas. Kaleidoscopes, both fabric and nature, evoke the power of centrifugal force that runs the universe. Pavement and ground scrapes express natural patterns and present the microcosm as a metaphor for the macrocosm. Surreal Landscapes have both waxing or waning transitional light evoking unique juxtapositions and a sense of isolated consciousness in a constantly changing universe.
In her artist statement, Dorothy explains her work as “meticulously rendered by hand without digital assistance. She continues, “I start all my paintings with a red undercoat and build the image with many layers of thin glazes, sometimes allowing the color underneath to show through to achieve complex but subtle variations. My hope is that the combination of color and enormous size will make the viewer feel as if he is looking at something familiar for the first time.”
