Open Range, Colorado Counties in Chinese Reds, Touring Map
2004-06, oil on canvas, 38 x 51cm
notes:
The sixteen paintings comprising Colorado Pioneers were sourced from websites for camping and caravan parks across the state. Images were chosen which didn't contain human figures, and grouped so that horizontal forms run across the scenes.
Open Range was the working colour palette for Colorado Pioneers, where each of the 432 colours was only used once. As the paintings were systematically completed, the range of colours to choose from diminished, leading to a kind of Fauvism by default.
Colorado Counties in Chinese Reds shows the 64 counties of Colorado with a unique tone of red. Touring map was constructed by plotting the sixteen locations of campsites in Colorado Pioneers and linking them with a set of circles. The state of Colorado is approximately a 3 x 4 proportioned rectangle, the same as a standard video monitor.