Public Works (Composition)

Slate, ochre, and a single accent of rust red—planes fitted together with the precision of a drafted elevation.

The composition reads as a grid of geometric panels, foreground shapes overlapping middle bands that step back into paler ground, the eye moving along horizontal beams before catching on vertical accents. Earth tones and deep cool blues carry the weight, with a low note of rust red breaking the order. Edges are clean and deliberate, the paint laid in flat, even passes that refuse gesture, the matte surface holding faint traces of underdrawing where one plane meets the next. Light is diffuse and frontal, casting almost no shadow, so the forms sit on the canvas like printed plans rather than modelled volumes. The kind of patient quiet that settles over working drawings left out overnight.