Consume #2 (Primary Title)
Betty Blayton, American, 1937 - 2016 (Artist)
“The act of creating, as in painting and print-making, allows the exploration of techniques for the creation of mood and mind set changes, much as in sound and music. The silent two-dimensional image, as in abstractions, is nonintrusive and allows the individual viewer opportunities to bring forth his/her own individual subconscious thoughts and feelings.” —Betty Blayton
A native of Williamsburg, Virginia, Blayton received a scholarship to study art from the commonwealth. Her studies took her northeast where she immersed herself in the formalist qualities of abstraction. In addition to painting on canvas, Blayton’s practice extends to sculpture and works on paper.
Consume #2 is an iconic work from Blayton’s body of tondo, or circular paintings, that delve headlong into areas of self-reflection and spiritual meditation. Through the application of paint placed directly upon the canvas, or on paper collaged onto the surface, the artist creates a palate of undulating color. The composition is at once reminiscent of landscapes— both earthly and spiritual.
"Magnetic Fields: Expanding American Abstraction, 1960s to Today", Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida (May 5 – August 5, 2018).
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