Press Release from MPG Contemporary

Hamilton's work could be described as romantically abstract or its obverse. In her landscapes there is little boundary between the naturally observed representational form and the abstraction of such a form. One flows from the other. Landscape becomes two color planes, reducing the scape to above and below.

In "Snow", so spare is any marking that the viewer could justifiably wonder, if not hung, which is top and which is bottom. The canvas is divided into two parts, olive brown on one third of the canvas, a white with a hint of grey, the remainder. It could be broken earth fading to a clouded sky or a meandering path clouding the snow, leading to a dark wood. The meeting of the two color masses makes the only suggestion of a horizon line. Only the title lets us know which way is up.

In "Green Hills", the hills, depicted in shades of grey-green gorse, softly meld into one another like the folds of skin on an old hound, surmounted by a storm laden sky. Again, the artist presents us with two color masses: earth and sky, inter-cutting each other and the canvas. There is no attempt to create or even suggest details of the landscape, only the muted play of light and shadow, which seems to be brought out by the scratched and roughened appearance of the linen surface. Yet there is no evidence of brush stroke.

Surface in all her work is a constant concern of the artist. Although to the eye, the surface appears rough and scratchy, in fact the canvas is glassy smooth, the result of repeated sanding and rubbing. Such is her technique in achieving this surface, with oil paint, that other artists devote time to study her surfaces. She has achieved this virtuosity on her own; she is self taught.

Somewhat different, in that it is totally abstract, "Oaxaca" displays a subtle procession of small, transparent, block-like cubes emerging from a Rothko -like, luminous, orange field. It is warm and rich, conveying a sense of both depth and surface. Seeing her work, both abstract and quasi-representational, one appreciates how relatively little distance there is for the artist, between the two.