The work presented in this website is anchored in the experience of observing light move through architectural spaces. Although they do not depict that experience, they do allude to, and parallel it. They do this by attaining a fragile balance of tensions between illusion and fact. Illusions of space and luminosity are countered by material presence and shape arrangements that refer and respond to the confines of the canvas. Like observing light move through a room, to experience these paintings, one should empty themselves of busy thoughts and tensions -- and simply look, observe, or as artist James Turrell has put it, "see yourself seeing". The abstract space of the canvas will emerge as shapes shift between projection and recession. Each painting is a room that is lit by color. To see the room, you must allow your eyes to adjust to a new lighting situation.

Besides scale and physicality, what the web images do not show is the matte appearance of the work, which is achieved with the use of silica in acrylic based paint (Guerra Paint and Pigment, NY). This allows color to be felt in the most direct way. Colors are mixed and applied directly to the canvas. Careful calibration ensures that solid, opaque pigments can transcend their physicality to envelop the viewer in a pure sensation of color.

Avoidance of the use of tape and rulers to get straight edges allows each painting to emerge perceptually -- edges are straight because my eyes and brain perceive them as such. This approach not only forces me to work slowly and consciously, it quietly establishes an expectation on viewers to read the work over sustained periods of time.

This website provides a clue as to the general nature of my work. Please come for a studio visit and experience this work in person.

Sean Greene December 2004.
Florence, MA, USA

P.S. For more insight into this work, here is a list of some of the artists, whose work and ideas have had a substantial impact on my development. (alphabetical)

Joseph Albers, Anni Albers, Mel Bochner, Pierre Bonnard, Alberto Burri, Richard Diebenkorn, Dan Flavin, Piero della Francesca, Robert Irwin, Donald Judd, Ellsworth Kelly, Paul Klee, Agnes Martin, Henri Mattisse, Piet Mondrian, Claude Monet, Giorgio Morandi, Robert Moskowitz, Faifield Porter, Harvey Quaytman, Ad Reinhardt, Mark Rothko, Fred Sandback, Sean Scully, James Turrell, Stephen Westfall.