Color Cell Paintings

The “color cell” paintings came to life in the early and mid 1980’s. Most are watercolor on paper, some, acrylic on toothy canvas. Wilson begins by sketching a large grid onto his working surface, which he uses as a guide to keep his brush moving vertically or horizontally. Using a small square-tipped brush, he first blocks in the large zones of color, then with an even smaller brush, renders detail. (include one photo here) The acrylics show multiplicities of color, as the artist layers color on top of color. Yet the watercolors are the bigger challenge, as each cell has to be painted independently and allowed to dry before he can move on to an adjoining cell. At close inspection the overall effect is abstract, but melds into a pointillist or impressionist composite when viewed at a distance.