Charles Thomas O’Neil Recent Work 2009-2013
Charles Thomas O’Neil works in a manner akin to stream-of-consciousness: a fluid process reminiscent of the push-and-pull strategies of Hans Hoffmann paintings. Abstract forms and markings evolve and ultimately emerge into exquisite and unique compositions. In this organic process, the artist finds his forms through trial and error and his words, a survival of the fittest. In this way, the viewer is exposed to the history of the painting - privy to artistic decisions typically made alone in the studio. O’Neil’s work focuses on the fundamental relationships between figure and ground. Reflections of light on the painted surfaces reveal complex veils of color which complicate the rigorous geometric underpinnings of his compositions. The completed painting is always the result of finding a balance between unity and confusion, the static and the dynamic. The sophistication of O’Neil’s method of layering also recalls the delights and subtlety of fresco painting. His paintings find light from within the layered, scratched, and rubbed surfaces and expose wonderful details very much in line with the traditions of earlier painters like Cy Twombly and Mark Tobey. However, O’Neil’s markings emerge as his own articulate and abstract languages, a visual discourse that I have watched mature over the past several years. Avoiding a pedantic narrative, O’Neil’s paintings seduce the viewer until one is wholly absorbed into the physical beauty of his ethereal world.
Executive Director, AMOA-Arthouse, Austin
