Colour Field Paintings

I have always loved the colour field paintings of Mark Rothko and Richard Diebenkorn (his later works), as well as several others. This approach also grows inevitably for a native of the region in which I call home. Daily exposure to the overwhelmingly beautiful prairie and northern skies in Saskatchewan encourage one’s appreciation of the colour field aesthetic.  There is also a Saskatchewan influence. The heart-stopping, enigmatic work of Otto Rogers is a remarkable example of the combined influence of the American colour field painters and an appreciation of that style of aesthetic expression as a spiritual response to a lengthy exposure to the prairie skies. Rogers’ work deserves far more attention than it currently receives, although he has been much acclaimed in the past and there seems to be a revival of interest in his painting and sculpture in very recent years—an interest that has fortunately produced a book of his paintings and gallery websites that provide samples. Otto is also an inspiration. It is of interest that, when my father began farming when I was 13 years old, he purchased the farmstead and land on which Otto grew up near a little town named Kelfield. I still recall seeing some beautiful but badly damaged and discarded sketches in the household refuse that Otto had produced as a boy. They clearly reflected an outstanding precocity and a budding virtuosity of drawing style.