David Sorensen - Studio 3.0

 

 

Montreal Downtowner – June 6, 1984

Sorensen Spins Abstractions
Art/ by Stuart Wilson

David Sorensen
Recent Paintings (the CORNER SERIES)
Waddington and Gorce
1504 Sherbrooke W.

The paintings of David Sorensen are essentially colour field presentations. The colours make the difference. Each large panel establishes a radiant glowing vibrant domain of colour which flows from top to bottom and to the spectator. The picture surface is flat but lively. Shapes are arranged in restrained visual balance and limited pattern but arrangement is guided by colour phenomena more than by formal considerations.

The shaped surfaces come together on the panels as compositions of two primary kinds of shaped rectangles or inverted L- shapes. Usually a group of two or three long rectangles are placed together vertically either touching at the sides or set slightly apart to make striped surfaces.

The upside down L-shape, each arm of which may be of a different width, enclosed the stripes on two sides. The L-shape occurs on the left side and the striped surface on the lower right.

This typical arrangement is placed to fill or almost fill the larger background pictorial field. If the elements touch on all sides, the leftover field space sometimes emerges as a long rectangle in a horizontal direction. The horizontal occurs above the principal arrangement.

If the elements do not touch, then the field space between the visual elements shows through as a more complex linear path which changes direction always at right angles. The path moves up, down and the elements guide the eye.

The paintings of Sorensen have a large scale structure arranged to support essential colour - engendered moods. Each painting establishes its own ambience. Visual movement and balance is devised to keep the picture bound within its edges. Pictorial composition deals with a conventalisation and counter-play derived from traditional arrangements.

David Sorensen teaches painting at Bishops University in Lennoxville and has held teaching appointments in many Quebec colleges. He has exhibited widely and his paintings are in many important collections.

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