JAN ROY, "Station II"
I grew up outside of NYC and both of my parents worked in town. Once a week
I accompanied my mother, a fashion illustrator, as she went from show room to show room
sketching the latest fashions on the models and then returning home to complete her drawings in her studio.
When we had extra time, we would go to her favorite galleries.
NYC made me physically sick as it was too powerful for a little girl from the countryside of Connecticut
in her white gloves—but it made a huge impact on me and I quickly was drawn to it.
Years later, no longer accompanied by my mother but one of our daughters, we biked through Brooklyn. Often we were under the elevated subway, busy dodging potholes and cars.
There I took in the feeling: the chaos, the dark and the light, the silence and jarring screeches,
the angular shapes, triangles of iron structures above me, pieces of light.
1.
I later returned to the studio to do some sketches.
1.
I later returned to the studio to do some sketches.
2.
When next in my studio, I knew I wanted to convey to myself what I had experienced.
I eased into this by painting studies on paper. I didn’t refer to my sketches because that would tie me down.
These are small, about 13”x 17. ” I relied on my emotions and remembrance of the place.
3.
My larger paintings on paper taught me what I was looking for.
I knew I needed angular structure and activity in just one area of the painting;
knew I wanted a lot of darkness and a sense of looking out and up for light.
These acrylics were done mostly on 20”x 26” and 42”x 42” paper.
"Station," (study) acrylic on paper 26" x 20"
"Early Evening," acrylic on paper, 42" x 42"
"Looking Up," acrylic on paper
"Across the Way" acrylic on paper
"Inside," acrylic on paper
4.
But facing a big empty white canvas, in this case 48” x 60”, is always as daunting as it is exciting.
I never want to get to the point immediately so I mindlessly start putting down color
and I wait until I start to see what is happening.
5.
I’d maybe wanted to end with a street scene but the feeling of being inside a structure
(a railroad station, not beneath the elevated), started to emerge.
Once it was clear what was happening, there was a sense of real purpose as I moved with energy
towards what was now an obvious path. There was a lot of time spent tweaking it,
making it less complicated by making the values more subtle, thus emphasizing
the activity and welcomeness of the station in the lower part of the painting.
And the feeling I wanted to convey of the power of the structure was emphasized
by putting in the delicacy of the tiles in the station itself.
6.
Another time, without planning on it, I got the street scene I had expected the first time.
"Station II," acrylic on canvas, 48" x 60"
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"Station," oil on panel, 40" x 40"
"White River," acrylic on canvas, 36" x 36"