"Variations on a Black Line #1 and #2"
30" x 30" Oil on Canvas
Rather than menacing, the black line has the power to set color ablaze, accentuating texture, color and style. I'm especially fond of these paintings as I worked on them in Italy, paying close attention to the subtle colors of various landscapes. If you are interested in these paintings, please let me know by way of email or text. Cost for each painting is $350 plus shipping.
"One Night in Needles, California #1 and #2"
20" x 20" Oil on Canvas
“One Night in Needles, California #1” and “#2” are 20” X 20” and composed of oil paint and oil stick on canvas. How can one night be so memorable, a night when nothing happens including sleep? Needles is nowhere. Nothing happens in Needles. Needles is where nothing goes to die. The empty diner late at night. The scorching heat, even after the sun has gone down. The hotel room with a scorpion skittering across the bathroom floor. Sometimes a painting comes from an unconscious dream. This one comes from an excavated memory. If you are interested in this painting, please contact me. Cost is $400 plus shipping.
“Prairie Landscapes: Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter”
These paintings are monumental works for me. Composed of multiple layers of oil paint, these large paintings represent a personal experience of the seasons in southern Indiana. I live on a quasi-prairie. It’s surrounded by pines and maples and oak trees, but the property is also open with meadows giving way to stunning sunrises and poetic sunsets. Seasons aren’t merely something we observe; seasons are within us as sources of psychological energy and spiritual landscapes. In these paintings I’m trying to capture, or better said, express, the feeling of the seasons. It’s my hope that in the presence of these paintings, the viewer will not just see the colors, but begin to feel what winter is like inside his or her soul, or fall, or winter or spring. While each painting stands on its own, I’ve harbored a secret hope that the four of them as a collective might find a home in a public building such as a church or school or government building. “Prairie Landscapes” are $1500 per painting or $4000 for all four. Shipping is an additional expense, though I’m happy to help facilitate transporting the paintings to their permanent home.
"Lake Como #1, #2, #3 and #4”
We all have favorite places. Personal places. Landscapes that feel as if they are within us, as well as out there in the world. Often these places are connected to special people or memories. Or maybe experiences, some joyful and some, even though painful are deeply meaningful. One such “place” or me is Lake Como in Italy. I simply love it. The enormous lake. The mountains in the background. The lovely villas dotting the lake like a precious necklace on a woman. Driving on narrow roads around the lake. For me at least, Lake Como is more of a feeling than a place. For the past several years I’ve been painting these Lake Como paintings, works both that fuse the inner world and outer world of my experience. The paintings are large, most of them are around 4 feet x 6 feet, but in the right house or office, with the right wall, these paintings could be enjoyed for a long time to come. Perhaps you like the sinewy lines or the vivid colors. Maybe the textures on the canvas. They are all oil paint on cotton canvas. If you are interested in one ofnthese paintings, I am selling them for $1000 per painting, with shipping an additional cost. Feel free to inquire at rscolglazier@gmail.com.
"Dreaming of Mexico" (SOLD)
30" x 30" Oil Paint and Oil Stick on Canvas
“Dreaming of Mexico” is 30” x 30” and composed of oil paint and oil stick on cotton canvas.
Many years ago, I discovered the photography of Jeffrey Becom in a small art gallery in Carmel,
California. His work is characterized by vivid color and insightful architectural awareness. I have several of his photographs hanging in my home in Bloomington, Indiana. I had no business
buying his work because, for me at least, it was a financial stretch at the time. Yet now, many
years later, I treasure every penny I spent on his work. Dreaming of Mexico is something of a
homage to Becom’s work. I continue to focus on color and texture, as well as the juxtaposition
of lines. I love the colors of Central America and Mediterranean cultures. In this painting I’m
invoking sky, as well as the colors of doors and walls. There’s a sense of place in this painting,
but also transcendence into a timeless atmosphere of beauty. (Sold)
"Yellow Line"
30" x 30" Oil Paint and Oil Stick on Canvas
“Yellow Line” 30” x 30” is composed of oil paint and oil stick on cotton canvas. It’s hard to know exactly where this painting comes from inside my psyche, but it surely is related to spending so much of my adult life in California and admiring sunsets over the Pacific Ocean. There is often that moment when the sun is going down, or maybe in a horizontal break in the clouds, that a thin ribbon of light appears. Sometimes it’s yellow. Or orange. Or pink. That thin line fascinates me. It's strange how the thinnest of lines hold together a whole landscape. The same can be said about those thin lines of feeling within our souls, how those thinnest of connections hold together so many large feelings, thoughts, and ideas. “Yellow Line” is an unconscious meditation on the way small ribbons of experience hold our lives together. If you are interested in this piece for yourself or as a gift for a friend, please contact me at rscolglazier@gmail.com. Cost is $400 plus shipping.
"Pink Line" (SOLD)
20" x 20" Oil Paint and Oil Stick on Canvas
“Pink Line” 30” X 30” is composed of oil paint and oil stick on cotton canvas. This is one of
several “line” paintings I’ve been doing recently, and I have several line paintings in my studio
that are not on my website, so call if you are interested in seeing more. I am exploring in these
paintings how lines meet, run as parallel realities, and yet, have the power to define what is
above and below. In a certain way, the line paintings are quasi-landscapes. I have an endless
fascination over how the horizon of the ocean meets the sky, or the ridge of a hill meeting the
atmosphere, or how even a bridge runs across a river or bay in a series of steel lines. In “Pink
Line” I imagine a night sky and how fluorescent tubes of light burn in a city landscape. If you
would enjoy owning this painting, please contact me. Cost is $400 plus shipping.
"Red Feeling"
30" x 30" Oil Paint and Oil Stick on Canvas
“Red Feeling” 30” x 30” is most definitely a landscape abstraction composed of oil paint and oil
stick on canvas. The “Hotel California” is right around the corner as I drive across Death Valley,
heading toward Los Angeles, as the sun begins to set, burning red in the sky, and it creates, not
merely a landscape to observe, but a feeling to be experienced. What does it mean to “feel”
red? Anger? Lust? Passion? Danger? All of that and more is found in these color fields. If you are
interested in this painting, please feel free to email or text me. Cost is $400 plus shipping.
"Liminal Feeling"
5 feet x 6 feet Oil on Canvas
"Liminal Feeling" is a large painting, 5 feet X 6 feet, and consists of nearly fifteen layers of oil paint upon a museum grade cotton canvas. Liminal space is that space of unconscious ripeness, like being under water in an oceanic state of confusion, not confusion in a bad sense, but in the sense that we are thinking and feeling and open to the many possibilities of the future. To not know where you are going, that is to say, to be lost, is not a bad thing, and in fact can be a good thing. Even a necessary thing. With striations of blues and greens, not to mention other colors, I am trying to create that feeling of both being lost and being open. If you are interested in this highly textured painting, please contact me. Cost is $1000 plus shipping.
"Restless Beauty"
5 feet x 6 feet Oil on Canvas
“Restless Beauty” is another large painting, 6 feet X 5 feet, composed of oil paint on a museum quality canvas. This painting probably has 12 layers of paint and is highly textured, as well as full of wonderful colors. The vertical lines of paint create a sense of restlessness, a movement of energy moving up and down the canvas. I have been a lover of beauty my entire life, but more than that, I am restless for it, long for it, and my soul needs it like oxygen. I did this painting a few years ago and love it, one of three paintings this size that I did. It currently hangs in my house, but I’m happy for it to find another home. If you are interested in this painting, please text or email me. Cost is $1000 plus shipping.
"Beautiful Cosmos"
90" x 48" Oil on Canvas
“Beautiful Cosmos” is 90” x 48” and would look perfect on a large wall with good width. It is composed of oil paint on canvas. Given its size, I worked on this outside my studio during the summer. I applied several layers of very wet paint, resulting in a kind of ceramic glaze quality running across the canvas. I had no specific idea for the painting before I started it, but as it came together as an abstract work, I began to see cosmic dimensions to the picture. I feel inspired by the writings of Carl Sagan and Neil DeGrasse Tyson, and of course the amazing photographs from the Hubble Telescope. Because this painting has a certain sheen to it, not only does it look good during the day, but even at night the painting is possessed with a kind of cosmic energy. If you are interested in this painting, email or text me. Cost for the painting is $1000 plus shipping.
"Listening to Lou Reed #1"
30" x 30" Oil on Canvas
"Listening to Lou Reed #2"
30" x 30" Oil on Canvas
“Listening to Lou Reed #1 and #2” are companion paintings consisting of oil paint on canvas and are 30” X 30” in size. It’s sometimes hard to explain why one is drawn to an artist, but in my case, I feel that way about Lou Reed. Yes, he was a rock and roll musician, but his songs, much like paintings, told a story. “Caroline Says” and “Take a Walk on the Wild Side” to name two were daring songs because they were touchingly human, daring stories told with artistic ingenuity and flair. Lou would often draw artists into his inner circle of friends including the great painter Julian Schnabel who was a close friend to the musician. I still play a lot of Lou Reed music in my studio when I paint, and although I know it dates me, it continues to inspire me, as well as making me think about what it means to be a human being. I use a palette of black and green and purple in these paintings, capturing, for me at least, the creative brooding of Lou’s music. If you are interested in these two paintings, and I will only sell them as pair, please contact me. The cost is $600 for both paintings, plus shipping.
"Italian Summer"
6 feet x 31/2 feet Oil on Canvas
“Italian Summer” is a special painting, and if you have ever been to Lake Como in northern Italy, you’ll probably recognize it as an abstract / feeling painting of that dazzling lake. Throughout the years poets, artists, and musicians have fallen in love with this little area called the Italian Lake District. While on the one hand it can be a bit of a tourist scene during the summer, it nevertheless remains pristine and magical. Beautiful villas ring the shores of Lake Como, even as ferries take people across the lake to village after village.(I’m planning to work on a series of Lake Como paintings this year.) Lake Como is the deepest lake in Europe, and throughout the day colors of the lake change as the sun comes up and then sets over the Italian Alps. This painting is oil on cotton canvas. And yes, it is generously sized – 6 feet by 3 ½ feet. I am also happy to have my assistant to put a simple frame around the canvas, though it doesn’t have to be framed to look good on a wall. The cost is $1000 plus shipping. If you are interested in owning this work, please contact me at rscolglazier@gmail.com.
"Evening Thoughts #1" (SOLD)
48" x 36" Oil on Canvas
"Evening Thoughts #1" (SOLD)
"Evening Thoughts #3"
48" x 36" Oil on Canvas
"Evening Thoughts #2"
48" x 36" Oil on Canvas
"Evening Thoughts #4"
48" x 36" Oil on Canvas
These four paintings – “Evening Thoughts” – are composed of heavy applications of oil paint on canvas and are 48” X 36” in size. Although one is sold, the other three would look so nice as a kind of triptych on the wall. These paintings are exhibitions (and icons) of contemplation. There is not a message. The message is no message. Color and texture. Texture and color. These paintings are meant to quiet the mind but inspire the imagination. They are paintings that I see from time to time while working in my studio and I find myself saying, “I like this. I like how this painting makes me feel.” The paintings are not light, but heavy with color, texture and depth. If you are interesting in owning one or all three, please contact me by way of text or email. Cost is $750 per painting or all three for $1500 plus shipping.
"The Way Easter Sounds . . . "
18 feet x 31/2 feet Oil on Canvas
“The Way Easter Sounds . . .” is a large painting. Composed of oil paint on cotton canvas, the painting is 18 feet long and 3 ½ feet wide. Okay, it’s a very large painting. While I could certainly hang in a person’s home, I have secretly hoped that someone might purchase it and donate it to a church. The colors are joyful. Typical Easter colors. The painting consists of 15 layers of paint, and most prominent are dots and points of various colors, a reminder that
Easter – the celebration of new life – is enjoyed and expressed in a variety of ways. This painting is special to me because I remember with agonizing feeling how hard it was to preach a sermon on Easter Sunday. (Like telling a joke and everyone knows the punchline.) I no longer preach sermons. But I do paint pictures, and this picture captures the joy of Easter better than most of my sermons. If you are interested in this painting, please contact me. I would love for it to find a wonderful home. Cost of the painting is $2000 plus shipping.
"Cherry Blossoms at Night" (SOLD)
36'" x 36" Oil on Canvas
“Cherry Blossoms at Night” is one of my favorite paintings. It’s 36” x 36” and composed of many layers of oil paint on cotton canvas. I applied the paint wet upon wet upon wet, creating
blossom-like images of red and white. Not to get too nerdy about it, but this painting was
inspired by watching several films by the Japanese director Kurosawa. His use of floating
blossoms fascinates me. Also, seeing orchards in the Central Valley of California in the spring, as well as the cherry blossoms in Washington DC, informed my consciousness while making this
painting. The surface has a high degree of gloss, which means even at night the painting likes to
show off a little bit with a subtle degree of luminosity. (Sold)