Veda Reed Exhibit at the David Lusk

Veda Reed exhibit at the David Lusk Gallery is called From Dusk Till Dawn. Many of Reed's works give the impression of being dreamy, fantastic depictions of moods rather than concrete objects in the atmosphere. Her signature work From Dusk Till Dawn is a study in blue. There is a dark, midnight blue background that soothes the viewer's eye which is adorned with a contrasting blue strip of swirling yet symmetrical lighter blue. It could be clouds or haze, or simply the effects of sunlight upon the sky, as the light breaks through the darkness. The swirls are feminine and ambiguous in meaning. They resemble both the swirls of a woman's hair as well as clouds, as if Reed is illustrating a depiction of Aurora, the goddess of dawn, simultaneously with her impressions of real, natural phenomena.

Another of Reed's paintings is entitled Clouds and Sunset. In contrast to the cool palate of From Dusk Till Dawn, mainly warm colors are used to illustrate this sky. The sky is streaked with pale orange wisps of horizontal, flat clouds that look like floating salt flats. The color palette of the sky has a gasp of a purplish hue, but is mainly aglow in warm pinks. What appear to be clouds in the lower half of the work take the form of swirls of white. They have a very different texture from the higher-level clouds. The lower-level clouds look almost like the surface of the moon, sand, or the white caps of the ocean. This ambiguity between sky and land is likely deliberate. The effect of the painting is uncertain and destabilizing.

Another sky portrait is "Morning Clouds." Although the title of the painting suggests a comforting landscape, in actuality the clouds are fiery, red, and threatening against a pale blue background. This painting is more obviously a cloudscape -- the clouds swirl in the upper half of the painting, slightly tilted on an angle, while the blue-pink morning sky is a blank, contrasting blur of color in the lower half of the painting. Suggestions of swirling clouds are embedded in the lower half, but they are very faint and pale in comparison to the more aggressive blooms of clouds in the upper regions.

Many Reed's studies in sky portraits tend to be hazy, with relatively undefined edges. However, some of her works are more distinctly outlined. Her "Three Black Clouds" depict a matte black background divided into three sections, with a single, amoeba-like blob of blue representing the unclouded portion of the sky. A paler cloud wafts in the middle of a sky like a gash, with a single, circular moon hovering beneath the line of clouds. The effect is more dramatic than Reed's gauzier sky portraits and seems to suggest a darker view of the natural world. The colors of the inner sky break forth in the darkness with symmetrical precision, suggesting that there is hope even in the midst of despair.