Anna F MacDonald: Shibumi XXIX

Anna F MacDonald
Acrylic on raw canvas
H 29.5 x W 22 x D 2.5 cm

Framing notes:

Presented framed only in a light wooden tray frame (no glass). 

Behind the Artwork:

In her Shibumi series, Anna F MacDonald looks back to previous paintings which have been created according to the core principles of the Japanese philosophy Shibumi, which loosely translates to ‘effortless perfection’ and embodies a sense of refined, elegant simplicity and subtle, unobtrusive beauty. Anna integrates the principles of Shibumi throughout her practice, emphasising the three principles Austerity, Asymmetry, and Subtlety particularly in these latest paintings. 

Each painting uses a colour palette derived from nature, including subject matter such as seascapes, sunsets, and dead Eucalyptus leaves. Revisiting her original compositions from earlier paintings, Anna reduces the key visual elements even further, paring back all superficial visual information to its simplest form; organic, geometric shapes and static lines.

In this way, this Shibumi series explores capturing the essence of a subject matter, and much like the artists of the St Ives School in the 1950s and De Stijl, the resulting paintings play with the basic elements of art to create quiet elegance.