Reservoir

Freedman Gallery Albright College Reading, PA February - March 2013

(BLUE), 2013, acrylic on archival inkjet print on stretched linen, 56 1/4 x 87 1/2 inches

AWAY, 2011, acrylic and urethane paint on paper on archival inkjet print on stretched linen, 43 x 65 inches

LITTLE ROOF, 2011, acrylic on archival inkjet print, 11 1/4 x 8 inches

SHADES, 2009, acrylic on archival inkjet print on stretched linen, 68.5 x 43.5 inches

SWITCHBACK, 2012, acrylic and urthene paint on archival inkjet print on canvas, 43 x 65 inches

(Green) RESERVOIR, 2013, acrylic on archival inkjet print on stretched linen, 43 x 141 inches

DOWN FOR UP, 2011, acrylic on paper on archival inkjet print on stretched linen, 87 x 70 inches

THROUGH, 2013, acrylic and flashe on archival inkjet print on board, 21.5 x 16 inches

ELATE, 2013, acrylic on archival inkjet print on board, 21 3/8 x 14 7/8 inches

BUTTONED, 2012, acrylic and inkjet print on canvas, 21.25 x 10.25 inches

TEMPERATURE, 2011, acrylic and urethane paint on paper on archival inkjet print on panel, 42 x 42.5 inches

CROSSING, 2013, acrylic on archival inkjet print on stretched linen, 49.5 x 44 inches

PROPPED, 2011, acrylic paint on archival inkjet print on wood, 58 x 2.5 x 16 inches

The reservoir at Pyramid Lake is off US Route 5, 50 miles northwest of LA.

It was attractive for me to photograph the reservoir and its surroundings because it was so different than the northeast landscape where I've lived all my life.

Several months passed before I was able to see the results of my photography—the large panoramas are digital stitches of almost 100 high-resolution digital photos requiring some 40 hours of technical computer work to form a single image.

As I became familiar working with the California photos in my Brooklyn studio, the landscape of Pyramid Lake came to seem less about difference than distance. Distance is the subject of these paintings.

I originally photographed the reservoir in the spring of 2009, when I came upon it while touring the mountains in Angeles State Park. Last fall I doubled back to photograph the same subjects in the same places—appearances were different even if the places were recognizable enough for me to find the same vantage of the lake and the same tree on a back road.

Looking at the large detailed photographic prints a visitor asked me why I painted on the photographs. Without reflecting I replied—to make it real. These photos are enormously descriptive—precise in location and moment. But it is painting — the application of color, material and shape on surfaces — that constructs a logic of viewing to bring the experience of these works into the physical present.

James Hyde, 2013

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