CINDY NICKERSON: Cape Week: Cape Cod Times Magazine: Friday August 24, 1990

A Breakthrough in Black: Artist finds a new way to express herself

Wellfleet- Lots of people, lying on their backs looking up at the sky, have imagined endless pictures in the clouds.  But New York artist Karen Gunderson imagined endless pictures of  clouds – just clouds – and painted them for 25 years.

Although Gunderson likes clouds, her main purpose was never to capture the wonders of the cumulus or the cirrus – although viewers, to her frustration, often saw her works that way.  For her, clouds were a vehicle that let her explore the mysteries of paint.

Two years ago, Gunderson let the clouds sail by. 

She had recently begun starting her cloud paintings with base paintings of black.  One day a friend, a sculptor, stopped by her studio while she was still at the “black” stage on a painting, and he admired It the way it was.  “it started this whole new world,” said Gunderson, who summers in Wellfleet with her husband and son.  “I’ve done this huge series now of black paintings.”

Her first show of works in this new series is on display through Sept. 1 at Cherry Stone Gallery on East Commercial Street in Wellfleet.  The paintings are sharing wall space with sculptors by Jack Carter, a New York artist who has spent the last two winters as a fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown.  Cherry Stone is open noon to 6 p.m.  Tuesdays through Saturdays.

Gunderson’s “black painting’s” take a few different forms, but at their most radical, they are painted totally and utterly in juicy black oils.  What keeps them from all looking like those black post cards that say “Night on Cape Cod,” however, is texture, executed elegantly and with great care.  With brushes and other tools, the artist has made grooves in the paint that catch the light and, so, reveal images.

Gunderson’s cloud paintings are filled with light,  the black paintings at first seem like a big departure.  But, the artist noted, her new works are realty “all about light.  It’s like painting with light.  The light is how you see your painting.”