In the aftermath of wildfires in New Mexico, Lois Tarlow discovered charred landscapes, plants sprouting out of the destruction and a whole new way of painting. Smoldering embers, smoky blackness and the graceful calligraphy of burnt sticks against a gray ground fill Tarlow's latest series of paintings with images that hover on the edge of abstraction. And yet, even without a horizon, these atmospheric vistas never lose their connection to the land.
Fire looms over the mixed-media works as a force with the potential to destroy and create.
And, as such, it echoes the artistic process. The surfaces of Tarlow's paintings echo this energy. Brush strokes skate and zigzag and melt over the volatile terrain. Every painterly mark is a movement within a setting constantly in flux. It helps me to find my place in space and time.'' To find her place, Tarlow reveals a willingness to lose herself in the environments she paints.