by Jeanne Mackenzie
In this series, plein air painter and instructor Jeanne Mackenzie takes a look at new paintings by contemporary artists and points out why they succeed as painted images. This week, Dana Zier’s “Pryor Overlook.”
There is a unique mixture of messages in this painting. There is the quietness of color, with a more muted chromatic scheme implying the makeup of the solid rocks. The distant landscape complements that scheme with its muted color palette. In spite of the almost monochromatic tone, there is a powerfulness in the strong value scale. The cliff shows its strength with its hard, sharp edges set against the soft edges of the distant mountains and valley.
