Impatientism

by J Randall, P Williams, &
R Wisdom

2' x 3'
Acrylic on Canvas
2007

What we have here is the first three-way impatientist painting.  John, Ray, & Phil are old comrades, going back a long ways to the mid-nineties when they were barely even shaving.  They convened the session that spawned "Exit 74" in John's attic at about two o'clock in the morning.  They were tipsy on cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon and Phil was reeling from a Notre Dame loss in the Sugar Bowl.  But these mere trifles of life weren't about to interfere with some good old-fashioned impatientist painting.  This was Phil's first brush with impatientism but he performed beautifully.

It is a fairly large canvas for impatientist painting.  The trio actually had only five colors to work with: mars black, titanium white, cerulean blue, hansa yellow, and a cadmium red.  What is remarkable about "Exit 74" is that the artists managed to pull out so many different colors from the basic palette.  The greens in the middle, the grays in the lower right corner, the oxide reds of the lower right corner, the flaming reds and yellows at the top, and everything in between.

It was likely Ray that executed the three-fingered swoosh working its way down from the top right into the middle, giving the painting a prominent and forceful personality.  The patchwork at the lower left is distinctive and unusual; someone, we're not sure who, had to have been adding those numerous small strokes while the other two artists were busy mixing and swooshing on the rest of the canvas.

The painting right now sits atop Ray's fireplace in the McKinley Heights neighborhood of St. Louis.  However, Phil has a claim on the painting as soon as he moves to St. Louis.