“Where Words Can Not Go” at Three Stones Gallery in Concord, Massachusetts features two gallery-represented artists and guest Jill Goldman-Callahan. The focus on abstract works is to “ignite a deeply personal connection with the viewer through the power of pure form and color.” There are words though, in the carefully chosen titles each artist assigned to their oeuvre, verbal nudges leading the viewer to the artist’s path and intent.
Timothy Dunnbier’s large format acrylic and watercolor abstract paintings greet the gallery visitor from the sidewalk facing window and on the entry wall. There are hints in the titles like “Klondike Blue” or mysterious metaphors like “Gold in Milk.” His free form abstracts are composed in layers that build on a muted wash base. Color forms appear at times in related groups and at times in solo flight. Black and occasional white calligraphic marks are drawn over the whole providing a visual syntax of characters that perform a dance for all the layers below.
Dunnbier’s works feel musical to me, like an orchestra warming up, base arpeggios, string and horn solos and staccato percussion waiting for the baton to settle them down. The paintings have a loose grid pattern like cells splitting. When some forms or marks appear to be slipping off the edge it gives the illusion of an endless scroll that winds across the visual plane as you stand there while it unfurls.