SATISH JOSHI

Artist’s Statement

Ever since my earliest training in painting I have been intrigued with both the play of light in 2-dimensional work and with the surfaces of my subject matter. My long-ago college experiences with printmaking served to increase my interest in the surface textures of my paintings; my decades-later foray into three-dimensional work in stone and steel had a further impact on my thinking about surfaces.

Textured two-dimensional surfaces are a hallmark of my personal style. My fascination with the artistic possibilities to be found in the physical building-up of two-dimensional surfaces has led to my decades-long use of texturing materials; I revel in using surface textures that interact with a strong painterly play of light and shadows to create a sculptural illusion on a flat surface. I work to achieve an interplay of the richness of color and the movement of light, using the textured background and foreground in my pieces as both reflection and central element in the play of these all-important facets.

The delicately textured surfaces of my abstract paintings, and the relief effect in my mono prints, capture the drama which the season of the year or the time of day can create as the natural light changes.  Strong light and shadow make artistic depictions of the natural world most exciting.  There is nothing more thrilling, or contrarily, more serene, than the drama of sunrise and sunset colors as they wash over a landscape.