Painting of the Day

Julian Lee, Disappearing Tree (Himalaya) Mixed Media on Canvas (190 x 140cm)

see also - this post with Mindy Bray, Alex Katz, and Daniel Richter - and a post from November in which Julian Lee shared a little more with me about his work.

Julian Lee talks about his work

Julian Lee, Vorstadt, Mixed Media on Canvas (135 x 105cm)

I had some recent correspondence with Frankfurt, Germany-based artist Julian Lee that he allowed me to pass on. Keep an eye on his site for new works. I've blogged about Lee's work previously and he told me a little more about it, writing;

"Like most Artists I’m not exactly sure what I paint, as what I think they mean can mean something entirely different to someone else. One of the wonderful aspects of the language of painting.

Roughly speaking though, I just start in the studio painting, mostly from memory, increasingly so, or occasionally using photos as reference points for subjects such as nature, or the way a particular building looked etc.

Then the paintings go through all types of transformations often ending up entirely different as to what I imagined. The hard work comes (as I’m sure you know) in trying to objectively analyze the work as to what level it communicates itself.

As for the content. The closet I can come to clarifying what they are about, is what the great Willem de Kooning once claimed as his slipping glimpses. The moment the minds eye makes a snapshot of a place or situation and stores it away in the subconscious. That first de-bunking vision is something I search for constantly and try to bring into the work.

A lot of people note in my work of a certain kind of angst, or solitude, which I take as my own search for some spiritual understanding of the troubled world we live in today.

I do like to leave the works open to interpretation though..."

Julian Lee

I like these works by Julian Lee:

Julian Lee, "Transit", Mixed Media on Canvas (130x100 cm)

Julian Lee, Untitled, Mixed Media on Canvas (90 x 70 cm)Julian Lee, Untitled(Purple) Mixed Media on Canvas ( 140 x 100cm)


Lee's wooded scene above reminds me of Peter Doig:
Peter Doig, "Concrete Cabin", Oil on Canvas, 198x275cm, 1994