Title: Bluer Than Blue
Artist: Monique Sakellarios
Medium & Materials: Oil on aluminum panel
Dimensions: 7" × 5"
Overview
Shifting away from her traditional landscapes, Monique Sakellarios presents a miniature abstract work that emphasizes kinetic texture, layered color, and luminous depth. Painted on reflective aluminum, Bluer Than Blue allows royal blues to surge through a canopy of molten gold, silver mist, and atmospheric movement.
Description
In Bluer Than Blue, celebrated landscape artist Monique Sakellarios creates an intense abstract study within an intimate 7" × 5" format. Her choice of a rigid aluminum panel transforms the oil paint's behavior, allowing it to slide, gather, shimmer, and catch light across the smooth surface.
The composition is anchored by a strong vertical axis that draws the viewer into an oceanic or atmospheric vortex. Along the outer edges, lighter teals and bright turquoise shift inward toward dense strokes of indigo, cobalt, and midnight blue, forming a rich structural core.
Color and contrast amplify the painting's energy. In the upper left, rich ochre, burnished amber, and copper-gold tones gather in thick circular brushwork, catching ambient light with a molten effect. On the right, pale cream, silver-white, and soft peach washes create a quieter haze that balances the heat of the composition.
The artwork’s most distinctive feature is Sakellarios’s tactile sgraffito mark-making. Five parallel white lines cut through the upper-right field, exposing the surface beneath and introducing a crisp, calligraphic rhythm that suggests wind currents, soundwaves, or motion across the panel. At the base, pale mint-green and soft chartreuse tones ground the composition, while the scratched signature reinforces the work's physicality.
Compact yet visually powerful, Bluer Than Blue radiates internal luminosity and expressive force, making it a striking addition to any collection.
Style & Composition
- Artistic Style: Abstract Expressionism with elements of contemporary lyrical tonalism.
- Composition Type: A high-density vertical abstract arrangement built from overlapping waves of texture. Hot golds in the upper left counterbalance an expansive field of blues, while sgraffito arcs add movement and structure on the right.
- Focal Point: A vivid vertical flash of crimson and fiery orange emerging through the dark indigo core.
- Color Palette: Deep cobalt, midnight blue, and indigo are balanced by ochre gold, burnished copper, mint green, chartreuse, and crisp silver-white.
- Lighting & Atmosphere: Transparent cool glazes layered over reflective aluminum create a strong internal glow and an energetic, dreamlike atmosphere.
Application & Stylistic Technique
- Brushwork / Mark-Making: Physical and varied, with circular impasto in the gold passages, long vertical pulls through the blues, and sharp combed lines near the lower-right base.
- Layering & Depth: Thin blue glazes allow the metallic substrate to show through, creating a deep background field while thicker white and gold impasto ridges project forward.
- Tools Used: Heavy-body oil paint on an aluminum panel, with fine sgraffito lines carved through the wet paint using the wooden end of a brush handle.
Inventory Status: Available for purchase online or in the gallery.
Shipping / Pickup: Shipping is available, with items securely packaged in professional archival materials, insured, and shipped globally; complimentary local pickup is also available at our 23 North Main Street gallery.
