Looking at Art

Kevin Sloan is a painter with a great understanding of history mixed with a marvelous sense of humor. In Wild Amaryllis he places a beautiful bloom and bulb in the foreground of a classic Italian landscape. The flower would seem gigantic were it not for his inclusion of the two small blue blossoms near the base of the bulb. Sloan centers his subject on the canvas and causes the viewer to confront it. At the same time we search the space around and behind it. Sloan takes us into the atmospheric light of the far distance and we begin to contemplate the mountains as well. The artist has painted the fluffy clouds as a backdrop to the red bloom in much the same way a scenic designer would create just the right stage set to keep our eye focused on the star performer. The delicate curves of the clouds’ outline soften the edges of the amaryllis bloom and, in a way, echo their shape. Sloan will be showing new paintings this month at Gardner Colby Gallery in Naples.
—Mark Ormond, Southwest Florida art curator and consultant