The Dark River
Created in 1938, The Dark River is a prime example of C.S. Price’s later abstract non-figurative works. As the title states, the painting depicts a nondescript dark blue opaque river with hills in the background, a sky, and a tree on a patch of land in the foreground. However, what is striking about this painting is its use of swaths of color- a hallmark of Price’s style. The hills in the background are multi-colored, one pink, one green, one white, one brown. Perhaps the colors correlate to flowers or other forms of nature but in high likelihood, the colors are part of the expressionist love of color to evoke feeling. And these hills cover a blue, green, and brown sky with hints of orange and white in the small sections we can see. The large tree in the foreground catches the eye due to its proximity to the viewer, how it bends so far, how it covers a couple of the hills, how it differentiates itself from the darker colors on the canvas by a white outline, and its white patch of land that is perhaps sand or dirt.
The paint is opaque in some areas, patchy in others- like the end of the brown hill on the left side of the canvas- and in other places, the different paints are mixed and layered on one another, creating a kaleidoscope of color such as in the left corner of the patch of land by the tree. The painting is textured and layered, creating a thick impasto. But the emotion of the painting is the confusing part. The title starts it, The Dark River, a menacing name that evokes dark imagery in one’s mind that usually goes straight to a negative association. The river itself is creepy, one cannot see into it, and thus, it is unknown, like much of nature. The barren tree is tilting, almost as if dead, and as it is in the foreground, stretching up to the top of the composition, it grabs the viewer’s attention. However, on the whole, the painting is colorful and bright. The same dead tree is outlined in pink and white, sitting atop a bright white strip of land that stands its ground against the river. Farther back, we see a pink and white hill stands strong and almost shocking in its vibrancy. And in the background of the painting, between two brown hills at the top left of the canvas, peeking through the gaps of the two great hills is a little orange dot, perhaps a sunset.
Through this painting, Price invites the viewer to contemplate the meaning and significance of the image. Perhaps some find it unsettling, others joyful. The image is neither good nor bad but what we make of it. Expressionism gives viewers the tools of a sensory experience, abstraction takes away recognizable imagery, and in conjunction, they force the viewer to decide what they see and how they feel about it. While The Dark River is representational and appears like nature, nature is distorted just enough to give the viewer an opportunity for a personal interpretation.