By Daniel Johanson
Light, repeated shapes and color gave Moulton a composition he says needed no rearrangement.
On Break, a painting by Josh Moulton. Photo: Josh Moulton.
“Years ago I walked by these three restaurant workers sitting on iron steps having a smoke break. The way the light was hitting them, and the smoke caught my attention,” Josh Moulton said in an email interview.
The scene became On Break, a painting of New York’s SoHo neighborhood. His account of the painting keeps returning to relationships already present in the street.
“When I am walking around I can’t shut off the visual stimulation in my mind that sees things that would make great paintings,” he said.
“The other thing that I always inherently notice are the other compositional aspects that can bring the viewer’s eye to a subject,” Moulton said. “Stairs in that area of New York always have these little round details on them… which are also mimicked up in the J Crew window mannequin displays.”
“The color schemes are also perfect. The reds and blacks in the windows are complimented by the reds in the bricks…and blacks in the shadows in the steps. And also in their clothing and facial tones,” he said.
For On Break, he described no need to rearrange what he had seen.
“For this piece, I kept everything I saw in the image. It was perfect. I really didn’t need to change anything. I liked it exactly how it was,” Moulton said.
“It comes naturally to me… to be honest. I can’t really explain it,” he said of judging the light and architecture.
“Maybe since I have been doing it for so long, or I inherited the ability from my artist Father, I just know it when I see it… and don’t have to adjust much.”
Josh Moulton Fine Art Gallery is at 2218 N. Clark St., Chicago, IL 60614. More work is available on Moulton’s website.
