Archaic View is a complex gradient composition and triptych by Donald Schenkel, made of oil paint on wood. The gradient shows its mirror image in blue.

This work of art is part of the Arhaic Shadows series:

Opposed to the expense of lightness there is the depth expressed by shadows. Depth found in gradients where lighter colours dissolve into darkening twilights. Again a book led me to find the words for what I made: In Praise of Shadows pointed out the beauty of what we would consider as darkness.

Shadows linger on the edge of the unknown, mystical and dark. Often made on wood and sometimes appearing as sculptures, these color transitions are grounded but deep. As my first venture into sculptural paintings these works sparked my attention to the object, the artefact and the archaic. This sensation of the ancient and otherworldly fits the idea of a silent wonder well yet contains a potency to be further explored.