Curator’s Eye: Depth of Field

Selected by Michael Monroe, Director, Bellevue Arts Museum


Long Cast, 2007 (Triptych), Oil on Canvas, 36 x 72 inches

Erik Hall’s paintings resonate with me because of the ways in which they suggest sensations I have while sitting in a darkened theatre waiting for a drama to unfold before my eyes. Hall’s paintings are defined by his ability to portray the interplay of trees, hills, valleys and paths bathed by junctions of strong sunlight and offset by dark and lengthening shadows.

Solemnly, in carefully constructed compositions where an absence of movement and solitary moments transcend time and place, Hall’s imagery stirs the imagination while touching a nerve in all of us.

Interested in the exploration of ideas of volume, form, color and space divisions, Hall’s highly ordered and stark depictions of landscape reveal both a desire to record the details of a scene and his love for the compelling power that abstract forms can communicate. — M.M.

Although my work is primarily landscape based, the intention of the work is not to render a landscape. The landscape is simply a vehicle for the creation of intense color. My work is an indication that something I have seen is present and exists, but it is portrayed how I remember it and not as it actually occurred. — E.H.