Branches, water, light, calm. The paintings, quintessentially Northwestern, of Jared Rue are quiet and yet full of movement. There is a way in which they rather remind me of Philip Glass music: slight differences, nuanced changes of emphasis, hue, or color saturation—cunning metamorphosis;
a bit of red emerges…
…a feather appears here and there. “Feathers seem to float or fly across a setting. What is happening just out of view?” Jared asks. “Are the feathers independent of their owners because of natural molting? An extreme gust of wind? Is it the result of severe or mortal trauma?”
…leaves that look like butterflies become, in another piece, actual butterflies, “portrayed,” as Jared himself says, “flying in large hordes, with seeming intent. Inspired by the flight formations of a cloud of bats…leaving their shelter to hunt at night…. Do you get the same ominous feeling when the subject is changed to something harmless and light? Additions of fauna change the reference point of the work.”
Because each scene is so exquisitely rendered, drawn with a fine brush and careful observation of detail, against subtle gradations of a luminous wash, the interposition of some small new element or a blue outline along a branch. becomes significant, mysterious, even fantastical. “My work, at times,” Jared writes, “leans towards the abstract yet still evokes a transcendent and genuine feeling of being able to enter, or step into, the paintings themselves – whether physically or mentally. The challenge is to create balance and contrast between light and dark, traditional and modern, boldness and serenity while at all times maintaining honesty.”
The très out on a whim auction/party, October 15, 2011, is pleased to offer a shimmering study in oil by Jared Rue.
For more on the work of Jared Rue, see: https://jaredrue.com/