Boys and Girls 2007, oil on canvas, 48 x 36”
“If I could paint the flower exactly as I see it no one would see what I see because I would paint it small like a flower is small. So I said to myself—I’ll paint what I see—what the flower looks like to me but I’ll paint it big and will be surprised into taking time to look at it” Georgia O’Keeffe 1939.
Like O’Keefe and other contemporary painters, Patrick Gordon renders his flowers larger than life taking great pleasure in their regal colors, velvety petals, sensual forms, and undercurrents of eros. Rather than painting individual flowers, Gordon paints bouquets which are clearly decorative arrangements far removed from their natural habitats. Through the art of representation they become twice removed and enhanced. The majority of the pieces in The Truth and The Beauty are made up of different sections. They are divided into diptychs and triptychs, but the images are never broken or compartmentalized. The impetus behind these divisions has more to do with personal references than esthetic or formal factors. All depict greatly over scaled floral arrangements bursting forward with vibrant colors.
To Gordon, painting is a place of expression of strife and joy, keen observation, passion and a continuous search of truth. In this search, Gordon always returns to the flower. “The Flower, for me, is perfect in every form, whether that be budding, full bloom or the waining flower—Perfection. With little manipulation from man, the flower blooms perfectly each and every time. It fascinates me how that is possible but we all know that it is. It is predictable; one of the few things in life that are for me.” Gordon 2007.