Kathryn Markel and artist Fran Shalom discuss the inspiration for the shapes and colors in Shalom’s abstract paintings.
KM: Your paintings have shapes that are so surprising. They’re almost realistic, but not quite. Where do they come from?
FS: Nothing I do is pre-planned, and they come just from playing and improvising. When I first come into the studio, I try to relax and focus on the painting on the wall. I start listening to a podcast, and I’ll put something down, whether it’s a color or a gesture of a line, and that starts the dialogue between me and what’s on the panel.
KM: And how do you choose your colors? What makes you pick a color to start with?
FS: I’ll look at my palette, and sometimes, I have color down from a previous painting. I often have three or four paintings that I’m working on. Sometimes, I'll think, I don't want to use that pink or that blue again. Then I'll look at my palette and go to my drawers of paint, and I'll see whatever grabs me, and then I'll work from that. I'll mix a color and get another tube, and there's a lot of color underneath the color that you see.
KM: So, you’re constantly painting over and also taking away.
FS: Absolutely. I consider myself a very subtractive painter, although I'm trying to push against that a little bit. For example, in this painting, a couple of years ago, this would have been completely one color – I wouldn't have left this because I wouldn't have been as comfortable. But when I was doing this painting, which I started in Mexico City, something was going on here, and I said – I'm just going to leave it. I'm going to stop myself from subtracting it and leave it and see how I feel. And I ended up feeling like it really worked.
