Some artists acquire a love for the vivid bolds of art: the spectral reds, blues, greens, indigos, violets and yellows. Wielded just the right way, they can unleash commanding messages or quiet, mystic revelations. Three central Oklahoma artists have spent years building bodies of work centered on the varied possibilities of striking color.
Thomas Batista
Venezuelan-born Batista painted landscapes as a boy. After studying art at Oklahoma City University, and in his later teaching, he found he wanted to “destroy the reality” he’d been tied to as a beginning painter. “Art, in many ways, is a disruption of reality. It is changing and adding something to reality. That’s really what probably made me want to use color as my main theme.”
Galleries: JRB Art at the Elms, OKC | Taylor’s Contemporanea Fine Art, Hot Springs, AR
Suzanne Wallace Mears
Mears is a committed colorist. She’s never been tempted to work in grays, blacks or browns. She loves the power and the finish brighter colors convoke. “The message I want to convey is positive thoughts – seeking the optimum, striving to be the best. I want my work to make you smile. Whatever may have happened in your day, when you look at my art, I want your heart to sing.”
Galleries: Howell Gallery of Fine Art, OKC, exhibit through Nov. 3 | Pippin Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM | Joseph Gierek Fine Art, Tulsa
Sue Hale
Hale is a devotee of primary colors. She counts herself fortunate to have studied under Oklahoma City artist Kay Orr, who excels in wielding color for dramatic effect. “Life is vivid. Color is one of the ways to express that, even if you are painting a buffalo red or purple or blue. I think I’m attracted to that expression, even when it surprises me.”
Galleries: In Your Eye Studio and Gallery, OKC, exhibit Nov. 2-Dec. 1
