Synkroniciti is excited to welcome back Seattle area painter (and poet) Judith Skillman with two beautiful and introspective paintings. Phosphorescent Ocean, a work in watercolor and gouache, recalls a bioluminescent phenomenon that occurs where overgrowths of algae and plankton emit green or blue light. The deep electric blue of this ocean is accented with brilliant sea green patches which glow almost white, as well as a deep purple contrasting tone. Looking more closely, one picks up gradients of each tone that imitate waves and suggest varieties of depth. Judith’s mastery of this color scheme is quite magical, producing a sense of calm, radiant joy. Contemplative and invigorating, it’s simply good for the soul. Study after Carlos San Millán in oil, watercolor and pencil on paper, is an abstract, though quite recognizable, rendering of a figure in front of a window at the end of a long hallway. The narrowness of the regions of color and the way they seem to melt down the page in a ferocious and volatile manner creates a sense of pathos, claustrophobia, while the deep dusky grey-blues of the figure suggest a depressive quality. This is a cathartic expression of an anxious, haunting moment, presented through color contrasts. These two paintings have a wide emotional range…the first is perhaps the antidote to the second.
See Judith’s illuminating paintings in Synkroniciti’s “Haunting” issue, Vol. 6, No. 4, available here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
Judith Skillman paints expressionist works in oil on canvas. She is interested in feelings engendered by the natural world. Her art has appeared in journals such as Windmill (The Hofstra Journal of Literature and Art), Artemis, and The Penn Review. Skillman studied at McDaniel College, the Pratt Fine Arts Center, and the Seattle Artist League. Her shows include The Pratt and Galvanize.