Aqueous Path

Aqueous Path is the largest of O'Guinn's recent paintings. Diluted gesso runs the full height of the canvas in narrow parallel channels, bone white against a ground of charcoal and warm gray, until the surface reads as rainfall, as a stand of birch, or as interference across a broken signal. Near the center the veil thins and a knot of graphite and dark pigment breaks through.

The technique is what makes the painting hold the viewer’s eye. Gesso, thinned to the point of running, behaves less like paint than like water, and O'Guinn works with that behavior rather than against it, allowing gravity to determine the interval and weight of every line. The result is a rhythm no hand could plan and no hand could repeat. Stripped of color, the painting depends entirely on density, and the drama comes from where the curtain thickens and where it opens. 

At seven feet by nearly eight, the work is architectural in scale. The vertical channels emphasize the height of the wall it hangs on, and the painting registers as a passage into depth rather than as a surface.