Stephen Estock at Schmidt-Dean - Philadelphia

Throughout his career Stephen Estock has constantly refined his love of visual sensation created by the painted interactions of line, color, space and light. Among other artists in Philadelphia, Estock has the distinction of being one of the most admired practitioners in a small group of painter's painters. Yet his intelligent and elegant work remains largely unknown outside this circle, probably because he rarely exhibits--this group of 14 paintings (dating from 1997 to 2003) being only his fourth solo show since he first showed 26 years ago.

The new paintings, ranging in size from 15 by 12 to 48 by 35 inches, are almost all smaller than the works he has previously exhibited. His muted tones glow and seductively invite the viewer to ponder (and even to touch) their scraped down, smoothly sanded surfaces. Among the earliest works in the show was Untitled (Last Vase), 2000, the final painting from an earlier series, part of which was shown in 1997. In this series, vases float atop color fields, but here the vase is partly obliterated, as it is enveloped in smokelike, quivering strokes of black. The gentle optic pulse emanating from this and other works seems elegiac, while also evoking memories of nature: bitter-cold blustering snow and ocean spume or the golden light of a spring sunset reflecting off the walls of buildings.

In the majority of these new works, Estock divides his vertical canvas horizontally to suggest earth and skylike hovering forms that meet at a central horizon line. While this structure makes one think fleetingly of Mark Rothko, Estock's palette of increasingly subtle oranges, reds and browns inclines one to view these newest paintings as imagined landscapes.

Estock usually leaves his work untitled, but the titles he does use seem like clues pushing one to interpret his imagery or to visualize what may have been on his mind while painting. Some, like Haggard (2002) and Gravel Road (2001-02), refer to recordings he likes by Merle Haggard and Lucinda Williams, while others refer to antiquity. The deep reddish-browns in Gladiator (2002), for example, suggest dried blood. The parched orange in Last Days and Last Days #2 (both 2002) conjures the painted walls in Pompeii, and one of the smallest paintings, Vesuvio (2002-03, 16 1/8 by 14 1/8 inches), also suggests the ill-fated ancient town, with the gestural markings at the top half of the painting bringing to mind spewing lava.

Estock's abstract imagery, like poetry, evokes many tangential feelings and thoughts, yet in the end remains enigmatic. One is left absorbing his sure-handed working process, marveling at the beauty of his paint and, not least, hoping that it won't be so many years until his next exhibition.

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