Terra Alba is a hand-painted white mountain oil painting on a square canvas, with thick impasto ridges that catch afternoon light. The textured abstract sits quietly on a wall.
Most of our white paintings lean soft. This one leans quiet instead. The piece sits in a frame on the floor of the studio between a wabi-sabi still life and a much louder abstract, and it holds its own.
The piece is built up in thick, gestural strokes. The palette knife did most of the heavy work on the ridges, and the softer valleys are brushed in. Because the color stays so close to white, the texture does the talking.
Square format works in a few predictable places: above a console, on a narrow wall that needs weight, or paired with another piece to anchor a gallery grid.
