"Anthologima 4' (2021). Marko Klomp. Oil on Linen. 120 cm x 100cm.

It’s not your fault

you have to make figures

of life to have history

made when you flap

your wings

 - Marko Klomp

Art Historian Tascha Sciarone infront of "Anthologima 4' (2021). Marko Klomp. Oil on Linen. 120 cm x 100cm.

Anthologima 4 | Marko Klomp | Landscape Painting

Painting description by Art Historian Laura Caseberry.

The viewer meets a green nature scene, a field with trees layered back from the mid to far distance. Light glows between the branches and creeps up the canvas from the horizon. In the foreground, the artist has placed a red and black butterfly in mid-flight. Like others in the series, a vital feature of this piece is a soft distorted scene in which a tiny, sharply detailed subject. The intricate butterfly is in mid-flight, juxtaposing it to the still location of the field and trees. As the viewer, we almost move with the butterfly as it progresses; we can position ourselves as the tiny subject viewing our surroundings.

The artist has possibly embraced the nature of a butterfly vision, which, while not as sharp as the human eye, sees with a broader field of vision. In addition, the butterfly's ability to discern polarised light, which creates a reduced glare and brightness, would match the light glowing from behind the trees. The light in the back and the middle ground of the painting is penumbral. Which refers is a partially illuminated space in an otherwise shaded environment. The dappled grass in the foreground is similar to the appearance of light on a water's surface. By applying these forms to the lighter colours, the viewer may rethink the scene as trees standing in a body of water. Or are we seeing a snow scene? Is this butterfly just emerging, newly transformed after a dormant cold season, or seeking shelter to enter a dormant phase.

However, we read the scene, be it as a field, water or snow, the painting evokes concepts of perspective and movement. Yet, it also conveys a delicate, tranquil feeling as we are drawn to focus on this tiny creature passing through the tranquil natural scene. The importance of the flap of a wings/ butterfly flaps its wings, knock-on effect creating history.

Anthologima 4' (2021). Marko Klomp. Oil on Linen. 120 cm x 100cm. in the 2022 Exhibition: Perseverance by Art Historian Laura Caseberry.