Milton+Avery

Milton Avery this artist was a maverick in my estimation. he did his own thing so to speak. if I look at Matisse I come to understand the importance of just painting, line, shape and color. this is also what I see in Avery ’ s work. there is a truthfulness to it, a simplicity of objects, forms into shapes, echoing Matisse and to some extent Cezanne. because of this simplicity the images have a gentle feeling about them, or I think a contended calmness. the colors are muted yet still bright. the forms have been reduced to shapes and line. they are Matisse in another time. Milton has in fact been called the American Matisse. He is a Colorist, working and choosing by feel, by eye, and then knowledge. His paint is thin and yet the brush strokes remain giving a man-made quality to his gentle paintings