PAINTINGS

“In her large Idaho woods paintings there is a sense that she understood the possibility and power of painting both as a courageous and poetic act.  As the painter Agnes Martin wrote: “We perceive-We see.  We see with our eyes and we see with our minds.  We want to see the truth about life and all of beauty.  Both are a great mystery to us.”  It is as if Martin were describing Romey’s paintings and drawings…the way they are suffused with life and beauty, immersed in these mysteries.

“What separates paintings of landscapes from landscape paintings is that authentic, sincere landscape paintings are about the relationship of the painter with the land, the land as an expressive, responsive presence. Communion…an exchange. The formal elements lead the viewer into the place. Strong diagonals guide the eye, into the picture plane. Lush and surprising interplay of colors invite the viewer. You are transported. Painting and seeing become an act of participation, inviting us into her experience with the places where she lived and worked hard to get to.” —Ben Mitchell

Hope Passage

172x102 cm (68x102 in) Oil on canvas

  • Within and without — this painting holds both of those elements. You have been in there, around there, and through there. It’s timeless. It is all about time, and not about time

    Searing light, mysterious dark.

Trestle Creek

172x236 cm (68x93 in) Oil on canvas

  • So many of these paintings came from the late afternoon walks in the deep forest. The light from the golden hour defines the horizon as it backlights the architecture of the forest and illuminates the duff of the forest floor.

Pole Bridge

182x203 cm (72x80 in) Oil on canvas

  • Black and white, then adding red, yellow, blue. This combination can be found in countless abstract expressionist paintings. Pole Bridge is the bridge to this abstract domain. Consider how in many languages water and air are the same color and often there is no word ‘blue’.

Split

Split

101x116 cm (40x46 in) Oil on canvas

  • Two trees once grew conjoined above and below the duff. The abstract painter reveals where decay fuels an emerging ecosystem.

Submerged II

182x236 cm (72x93 in) Oil on canvas

  • An underwater realm with a microcosmic viewpoint, is filled with emotion

Float

Float

142x137 cm (56x54 in) Oil on canvas

  • Surrender to the undercurrent and float upward. Be carried and find that you float on the surface with the debris. The iconic seed emerges in this work. The viewer is parallel to the surface of this water. No horizon.

Pod

Pod

152x132 cm (60x52 in) Oil on canvas

  • The universe within the universe shadow and light record life percolating to fruition.

Eye of the Shallows

Eye of the Shallows

91x106 cm (36x42 in) Oil on canvas

  • The eye and the eye reflected established the horizon line that bisects this canvas. The water surface and its mirror below illuminate an entire universe found in the quiet shallows.

Chrysallis

Chrysallis

203x177 cm (80x70 in) Oil on canvas

  • The chrysalis emerges from primal ooze. It is in the chaos of the seed that fungus, decomposition fuels the possibility of life.

Mirrored Pond

Mirrored Pond

35x35 cm (14x14 in) Oil on wood

  • Without a horizon line the half becomes whole. The seed is an iconic visual language.

Confluence

Confluence

177x106 cm (70x42 in) Oil on canvas

  • In the language of nature the movement of water pushes within and without. The duality of deeply under and then the flourishing to full red on the glistening surface gives the gift of ‘witness’ to the viewer.

Ebb / Flow

Ebb / Flow

177x152 cm (70x60 in) Oil on canvas

  • The chaos of water is both violent and full of grace. As it looses force the quiet water pushes mystery to the surface.

Shift

Shift

182x177 cm (72x70 in) Oil on canvas

  • Shift is that force of nature that organizes chaos into the chance of survival.

Riser Creek

Riser Creek

172x236 cm (68x93 in) Oil on canvas

  • Again the golden hour illuminates this piece. So much has happened — all the primal forces have come into play within this painting — water, air, fire, earth.

Beckers Gulch

Beckers Gulch

208x172 cm (82x68 in) Oil on canvas

  • Near and far. The canvas is divided between what is near and what is far — what was and what is. The abstract painter knows the rules of composition and breaks them successfully. The long white shaft that divides this composition in equal parts is the path that leads you through the painting rather than stops you.

Howe Mountain

Howe Mountain

35x35 cm (70x60 in) Oil on canvas

  • Red, yellow, blue. Water, fire, earth. The fallen log divides the composition; water from fire. A pattern of light and dark lead a path through the painting. Earth dividing fire in the water.

Denton Slough

Denton Slough

172x236 cm (68x93 in) Oil on canvas

  • The boulder poised above water. The tree as sentinel, is the one that holds the story. The ‘menhir’. The foreground is backlit and the background is illuminated in pink pink yellow teal. It’s the universe in reverse.

Dry Creek Basin

Dry Creek Basin

203x172 cm (80x68 in) Oil on canvas

  • The darks in this painting are the foundation to the fire in this painting. The abstract painter plays cool colors to heat warm colors. This is a basic tool in abstract painting.

Snag

Snag

198x76 cm (78x30 in) Oil on canvas

  • Looking down, the torrents of water pull the harvest of twig and limb; producing a document mapping the opposing forces — water and earth.

Seed

Seed

190x203 cm (75x80 in) Oil on canvas

  • One thing leads to another. Water and earth combined to foster the environ for the seed. The seed travels not only in this painting but throughout the body of these works. Later seed will appear and lead Romey through decades of visual literature in both painting and drawing.

Tangle

Tangle

40x55 cm (16x22 in) Oil on canvas

  • Tangle, tangent, twist and pile. impossible to stack. Forgotten but saved.

Backbay Revisited

Backbay Revisited

91x76 cm (36x30 in) Oil on canvas

  • The only straight line in nature is water thus giving us the horizon line. The story emerges. Giving air and light where so much grows.

Ballast

Ballast

35x35 cm (70x60 in) Oil on canvas

  • Late afternoon walks in the forest lead to discoveries. There are other forces in the universe and how and why this happened remains a mystery. seeing it makes it so. Leaving it untouched is the ballest of human to nature.

Wound

Wound

127x137 cm (50x54 in) Oil on canvas

  • Wound is left behind when forces that are both miraculous and evil leave their mark.