Provenance: Provenance: Private Collection, USA

ABOUT THE WORK

The carefully patterned masts of the boats create a steep perspective that leans the eye into the distance, balanced on either side by the horizontals of a house and white sail. The painting is striking for its sketch-like gestural detailing of modern ships at port and for its cool, yet glowing atmosphere of the blue sky crisply cut by the vertically structured black strokes and vibrant waters which reflects the verticality of the boats. The often bold, jostling brushstrokes have given way to small, variegated touches that softly and subtly convey the shimmer of the colored reflections of the surface of the water. His portrayal of harbour boats reveals his dedication to the mastery of color. This is a fine example of Zalameda’s developing interest in the elemental. Although always tender in observation and mood, Zalameda’s abstract works avoid false sentimentality. Zalameda’s charming and airy gestural abstraction is a happy collision of hazes, even haphazard patterns of broken colors. The brushstrokes, though too broad to be strictly speaking descriptive, provide visual equivalents of natural objects and the feel of weather effects which make an impact on the spectator just as they had been executed with immediacy.