Some Place

Abstract

University of Washington Abstract Some Place Benjamin Dunn Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Associate Professor Helen J. O’Toole School of Art, Art History and Design This thesis examines the role of specificity, observation, and organic forms employed in the development of a painting style which is rooted in the landscape tradition. The traditional formats from the history of landscape painting are investigated and replaced with an abstract vocabulary which is sympathetic to the observed formal situations in experienced environments. This paper traces my development from the tradition of landscape to an investigation of place open to poetic and spiritual interpretation. In this paper I demonstrate the development of this style through its historical predecessors in the painting tradition as well as influences from contemporary painting and poetry.