The Oaks by Jon Jay Cruson. Acrylic.
BY SYLVIE PEDERSEN
Cruson's
Colorful
Landscapes
Dynamic, rhythmic patterns
I
n “Where the Road Leads Me,” an
exhibition of acrylic landscapes at the
White Lotus Gallery through May 29,
Jon Jay Cruson seeks and extracts the pat-
terns of the land.
When he lived on the Oregon Coast and
painted seascapes, Cruson spent countless
hours studying and sketching waves. Born of
rigorous observation and understanding,
those sketches mapped the dynamic patterns
and shapes of ocean waves. Moving inland,
Cruson examined the patterns inherent to
landscape during several months spent on the
road each year. We may more readily think of
the dynamics of water than of landmass, but
Cruson’s analytic eye discerns it unerringly
in the types of landscapes he favors: gently
rolling, open rural land with its agricultural
markings and few trees.
While remaining representational,
Cruson’s paintings tend to the abstract, a dou-
ble pull that is one source of creative tension
in his art. Composition and design have pri-
macy over precise representation. He plays
with shape, line and color to create vibrant
yet serene patterns, and his concern with
composition leads him to ultimately question
the nature of representation, especially per-
spective, in some works.
Cruson’s compositions are based on
almost geometric patterns of well-defined
color areas corresponding to hills, fields,
hedges, roads, rivers. Space is constructed as
a series of tight-fitting, colored shapes, flat
rather than shaded areas of color with little
sense of volume, reminiscent of space in tra-
ditional Japanese art. Except for trees, there is
no modeling, no representation of light and
shadow. Notwithstanding the cast shadows of
trees, light imbues these landscapes uniform-
ly. It is the land itself and its properties, inde-
pendent of light, that interest Cruson.
Similarly, line even when indicating con-
tours is not meant to suggest volume.
Rather, line dynamically defines both
landscape and composition. His travel
sketches are all about the dynamic,
rhythmic lines of landscape, as if he
were mapping the directions in which its
energy flows.
Cruson makes both analytical and
expressive use of line. Linear patterns
divide the canvas into broad tonal areas.
Although Rising Ground #2, for instance,
relies on strong alternative diagonals form-
ing triangular areas, most of Cruson’s com-
positions are dominated by horizontal lines
complemented, contrasted or accented
with verticals and diagonals. In Patterns.
Natural curves (hills, contour lines, ponds,
rivers) play against straight, man-made
lines (fields, hedges, furrows, roads).
Contour lines, rows, furrows, tractor
marks — variously and contrastingly ori-
ented — create strong rhythmic patterns. The
rounded forms of trees act as a counterpoint to
line. In The Lone Tree, the dot patterns of
grouped trees fill a diamond-shape area in the
center of the painting. With diagonal accents,
the dot patterns present a dynamic counterpoint
to the strong horizontals of the composition.
Cruson’s colors also obey laws of compo-
sition, rather than being strictly realistic.
Skies may be black or pale yellow. Fields and
hills are blue, green, mauve, purple, pink,
yellow, ochre, brown, black — tender or
intense, in tints and in shades. The complex
relationship of echo and contrast among col-
ors is one of the dynamic patterns that inform
Cruson’s paintings.
Mauves and purples often dominate, con-
trasting with yellow accents to which Cruson
adds a little purple. Areas that seem chromat-
ically uniform often actually contain traces of
other colors that appear elsewhere. Edges or
outlines often consist of repeated lines in dif-
ferent colors borrowed from the rest of the
canvas as in Evening Blue.
Another crucial structural element is per-
spective, and Cruson toys with its conven-
tions. The paintings in this exhibition fall into
three broad groups in terms of their approach
to perspective.
Farmland #1 and #2, Ridge Line, Green
Field #2, Near the Ravine, Near Green Field
loosely follow the rules of traditional Western
perspective, such as diminishing scale, aerial
and linear perspective. Rural Landscape is
most naturalistic and unique in that it even
models in subtle chiaroscuro the folds of the
hill in the foreground.
However, Cruson’s familiarity with Asian
art influences his treatment of perspective in a
large number of paintings. In traditional
Japanese paintings and prints, the sides of a rep-
resented object remain parallel, or even diverge,
as they recede. The same scale is used to repre-
sent height and width, but depth is reduced.
In Cruson’s work, parallel lines don’t neces-
sarily converge toward a vanishing point either.
In paintings such as Lavender Fields, the view-
er’s vantage point appears to shift as we move
our gaze from the bottom to the top of the can-
vas. In the foreground, the viewer is looking
down at the hills below as if from a promonto-
ry. As our gaze moves up, the plane appears to
tilt up. As we face the background at eye-level,
we perceive it to be much closer than if linear
perspective were used. Cruson described this as
“a tilted or lateral perspective, where things
appeared stacked on top of each other.”
In a few of the paintings, Cruson frees
himself further from the constraints of both
Western and Asian perspective. Such a break-
ing away from conventions is hinted at in The
Oaks. Although the work as a whole follows
traditional rules of perspective, one area
eschews perspective altogether: A hill rises
straight and flat as deck card, flush with the
picture plane, its vertical furrows aligned
with the sides of the canvas.
In Tilted Orchard, the geometry of the com-
position goes a step further in thwarting the illu-
sion of perspective. The middle-ground seems
closest to the viewer. In a reversal of scale, trees
there are larger than those in the foreground. As
indicated in the title, the orchard in the middle-
ground tilts at an unexpected angle in relation to
the rest of the landscape.
Finally, in paintings such as Steep Incline
#2 and Burnt Fields, Cruson’s most abstract
compositions, the idea of perspective is itself
subverted. In his other works the viewer’s
gaze is first instinctively drawn to the view of
the foreground below, then slowly makes its
way up the canvas. But here we feel the need
to start from the top, at the horizon, where a
few horizontal bands of sky and land offer a
measure of stability. Then we face a sheer
vertical drop. If we follow the logic of repre-
sentation, we need to accept that a whole sec-
tion of the landscape has folded 90 degrees
along a straight line like a paper construction.
In an orchard — now tilted at a sheer vertical
flush with the picture plane — we get almost
a full side view of trees placed in a neat row.
In this way, Cruson slides the ground from
under the very notion of representation.
Cruson clearly enjoys his journey.
Do not miss this superb exhibition. ew
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APRIL 29, 2004 21