The Ultimate Depth of Color in Painting

This past Sunday, I had the pleasure of seeing Mark Pflughoeft’s paintings at the BioPharmaceutical Center in Madison. Mark taught art in the public schools, and has been painting for over 40 years, so it is interesting to see where he “arrives” at this point in his art career. Many of his paintings deal with color contrast and compositional balance. To me, they often have an “Asian” feel or sensitivity. However, what is most interesting is Mark’s wrestling with the issue of color depth in painting. Throughout history, artists have been concerned with color depth, inventing techniques for glazing, coating the final work with varnish and so forth. Marc’s approach is to do the entire painting on the backside of Plexiglas! It is hard to imagine greater depth of color. The paint is applied layer by layer, is scraped and blended until the creation is complete. The result is quite interesting and unique. Traditional artistic concerns are addressed with contemporary tools and techniques. Mark’s work will be on display through December 1st.