Abstracting the Landscape

In this large landscape, one of my favorites, Dad succeeded in painting a marvelous tapestry of abstract color that also evokes the sand dunes of Cape Cod. Most wonderful is the turquoise high on the left that is obviously painted over/after what lies beneath it, and yet stands for a distant inlet of water. To the viewer, it is seemingly both close and far away, both floating above the picture plain and also obviously a flat stroke of paint.

One of Dad's practices was to turn a painting over, and even on its side, to test the validity of the composition from all directions. It had to "work," as he put it. In my mind's eye, I can see him turning this painting and finding it good.

A Donation of Paintings

Recently, we donated several of Dad's paintings to the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Foundation.  They have an excellent collection, mostly of New Mexico artists, spread through the various hospital, classroom, and out-patient buildings.  Garo Andreasian, Joe Novak, Tony Evanko, and myself are some of the artists, but there are many more.

Dad did, in fact, paint in New Mexico during the summer of 1948, when he studied with Louis Ribak (on the G.I. Bill).  This was the summer after Mom and Dad married, so their months in Taos were like a honeymoon.  They met many people in the Taos art community and began a long friendship with Louis and his wife, Beatrice Mandelman.  That summer, Dad painted many watercolors, which survived in a portfolio, and some of them have been given to the UNM collection also.   Another is displayed in the New Mexico Capitol Collection; you can see it if you visit that great collection in the Roundhouse.

Here, I've published an acrylic abstract titled "Of Sea and Weather" probably dating from the 1970's or 80's.  The weather Dad had in mind seems to be calm and overcast, possibly foggy.  I love the grave serenity of this painting.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Welcome to this blog/website I am  creating for my dad, Mayo Sorgman.  When he died in 2006, my brother and I inherited a large number of paintings and a legacy of creativity.  I'd like to share some of the paintings, and establish a web presence for Dad.  His work is too beautiful and important (to me, at least) to fade into obscurity.  

The painting pictured here, a 30 x 40" acrylic, dates from one of Dad's most productive periods, and since he was painting well into his 80's, there were several distinct periods.  Dad never dated his work, but I know that this one was completed after he and Mom moved to Harwich, on Cape Cod, in 1997.   At this time Dad produced abstracted Cape landscapes that poetically convey the shimmering maritime light.  I've got numbers of these beauties rolled up in storage.  They have never been shown.  It is my delight to begin to post these works in hopes of sharing them with you.