Gloaming Breaks

Gloaming Breaks is the first in an upcoming body of large scale

canvas works by MJ Lourens. It is a deliberate choice on the

artist's part to now produce paintings that are commanding in

scale, style and subject matter.

Portrait format is a particularly bold choice for this work. It serves

to draw the viewer in, beckoning you to step through the frame

into the world of the image. That world is both real and surreal,

both urban in scope and yet the foreground where the viewer

floats upon the earth is pastoral. We enter this landscape in

darkness and then soar over it towards the dawn.

All of these contrasts speak to Lourens' artistic relationship to the

modern world. The depth and richness of these new paintings

explores how so much of contemporary life contains its own

opposite. We are more connected than ever and yet isolation is

prevalent. As cities expand, they impede on the natural spaces

where we thrive.

These themes have always informed Lourens' approach to

painting, but past work has embraced melancholy as a primary

emotional foundation. Here, Lourens lands on the side of hope.

There are large green spaces in this city. Warm blooming yellows

and soft pinks pulse through inhabited areas that feel full, but

never congested. The artist's signature pixelation in the sky is

usually a suggestion of distortion, but here a stately stone pine

intentionally breaks more of the sky than the pixels. Life wins out.