Title: Imagine
Artist: Monique Sakellarios
Medium and Materials: Oil on aluminum panel
Dimensions: 4" x 6"
Imagine is a luminous companion to Imagination, offering collectors a compact abstract landscape alive with light, texture, and movement. Painted on a rigid aluminum support, this intimate oil study uses the reflective surface, fluid handling, and rich autumnal color to create a small-format work with surprising depth, energy, and visual presence.
Description
In Imagine, Monique Sakellarios presents an expressive 6" x 4" oil abstraction on aluminum, combining intimate scale with a vivid sense of atmosphere. By working directly on metal, she allows the reflective surface to serve as an internal light source, activating the transparent oil passages as they shift with surrounding light.
The composition moves beyond traditional landscape structure, drawing the viewer into a dense, swirling atmosphere of color and texture. Brilliant cadmium yellow, golden ochre, and copper orange sweep across the right side and lower edge in thick circular impasto ridges, creating warmth and movement. These passages are counterbalanced by magenta, crimson, and violet in the upper left, while slate-gray and charcoal glazes gather above like a weighted, textured sky.
At the lower right, delicate sgraffito lines cut through the wet oil to reveal the aluminum beneath, adding a refined graphic detail to the painterly surface. The result is a whimsical yet sophisticated miniature that radiates energy at close range while offering the strong surface character collectors value in original oil work.
Style and Composition
- Artistic style: Abstract Expressionism with contemporary lyrical tonalism, giving the piece a balance of spontaneity, atmosphere, and refined visual control.
- Composition: A vertical abstract layout shaped by shifting waves of texture and asymmetrical color balance. The dominant golden field on the right creates warmth and momentum, while the cooler magenta and violet passages in the upper left provide contrast and depth.
- Focal point: The high-contrast meeting point between the deep crimson-violet passages and the brilliant yellow impasto ridges, where color, texture, and light converge.
- Color palette: A vibrant harvest range of cadmium yellow, golden ochre, and copper, balanced by crimson, magenta, plum violet, slate gray, and charcoal for a rich, sophisticated visual effect.
- Lighting and atmosphere: Transparent oil glazes over reflective aluminum create an internal luminosity, giving the work a fresh, powerful, and dreamlike presence.
Application and Technique
- Brushwork and mark-making: Loose, physical, and gestural. Thick impasto builds the golden passages, while broader dragging motions shape the violet forms and sweeping gray upper field.
- Layering and depth: Thin glazes allow the metallic substrate to show through, creating visual depth and a subtle background glow. Raised ridges of yellow and pink paint add a tactile dimension and catch the light from different angles.
- Tools and materials: Heavy-body oil paint on rigid aluminum, applied with small flat-bristle brushes and refined with a fine tip for sgraffito line work and signature details. The metal support enhances durability while preserving the piece's luminous, tactile surface quality.
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.
