Dry Daisy

Paul Jansen <br/><br/>Jansen may render several connecting interstices or curved forms with strange volumes which cast shadows across the canvass. Whatever he puts his hand to, the results are always inventive. The artist's graceful, ribbon-like forms are swollen with sensuality as they appear from some space outside of the canvass and loom across the picture plane, weaving and interweaving in against themselves.<br/><br/>These works are pure invention, unlike anything else now in painting. They cannot be grouped with any school of thought, as Jansen is an independent artist who has chosen to observe but not participate in re- cent trends, preferring to state his own ideas rather than be absorbed by any group. Jansen uses space in a most original way. For most painters, abstract shapes function in one plane. Jansen, however, models his shapes. Because he graduates the tones in his shapes from light to dark, and because they cast shadows, they are no longer perceived as two-dimensional shapes, but as volumes. Jansen uses abstract configurations reflecting the conventional ideas of classi.- cal painting as a model. And so in spite of the strangeness of his shapes, or rather volumes, he is in reality an essentially tradi- tional artist.