Robert Stuart Cohen

About the series

This website presents several series, and overlap exists between them. “Change” is the subject. The series are variations on a theme.

Pure Spirit

Adding color to a purely abstract, geometric plane, and turning it in space, I consider this ribbon-like figure the physical embodiment of pure spirit. As a symbol of the human spirit, transcending gender, race, politics and the personal, it is a balancing act of rationality, feeling, and energy.

 Landscape Progressions

Painting with a variety of techniques in acrylics on paper and then working selectively with collage, I combine colors and visual textures to suggest multiple landscapes.   The suggestions of atmosphere and topography often appear to be photographic, while the grid-like organization supports order, change, and continuity.

Transitions  

 Composed with two canvases or made to look like two, spontaneous techniques in one are contrasted with carefully blended transitions in the other. Each canvas is a composition in itself, but as with the Landscape Progression series, the relationship between the two becomes greater than the sum of its parts.

Combinations  2022-3

In this series, the possibilities of combining differences in Landscape Progressions, Pure Spirit and Transitions are taken further by joining abstract and representational styles, mixing media, recycling old work, and assembling multiple panels. In addition to my delight in the variety, I regard the compositions as celebrating diversity, embracing change, and extending boundaries.

Digital Prints 2022-3

These digital prints on metal and paper are not  printed reproductions of paintings, but original artwork using a computerized process. I paint the raw materials, photograph them, and then use Photoshop as a tool to create more complex illusions, raising questions about the past, conservation, and the unknown.

Color Transitions 2022-3

These compositions with two, most with three, and some with more canvases of blended color, are the simplest and most  subtle of changing relationships.