peter whitting at ch'i: an art space

Around the corner of a large warehouse on Kent Ave., down almost to the water is a door marked “C.” Up five floors of stairs and down an industrial hallway lies Ch’i: An Art Space. The night of September 21, 2001, the walls were decorated with the paintings (more subconscious maps or religious artifacts) of Peter Whitting for the opening of his show, “Jakarta Songs & Other New Works.” An appropriate title, as he likes to think of art as: “evoking music without an instrument.”

His creations - miniatures on wood and paper - hung in space speaking, drawing me to another part of the world: Indonesia. Whitting spent time there and drew his inspiration from the countryside and sights that greeted him.

“These ideas are definitely the result of my trip to Indonesia,” Whitting said. “There are so many patterns there that I incorporated into my work. The entire place is dense rhythm, from the way rice fields are laid out in the mountains to the way the monsoons sweep across the landscape.”

Whitting is drawn to landscapes by his childhood in Australia. “You can’t help but confront the landscape down there,” he said. “I’ve carried that with me wherever I go.”

“I like the idea of miniatures because they put a big concept in a small area. It promotes intimacy between the painting and the audience. They have to lean in to look.”

The colors in his paintings are muted but vibrant; light lurks in corners and crevasses; and there is a lot of movement. A sense of hope or discovery pervades the paintings; a mystery about to be unraveled.

To create these paintings, Whitting sketches many preparatory drawings. Whitting then draws the initial design with architectural tape. He applies layers of color before he removes the tape to reveal a ghost image. The results are varied: some smooth like paper; others textured with ripples like on a tidepool; still others with a raised platform in the center of the painting.

The result is a very patterned piece, a process of construction and deconstruction. Abstract expressionism seems to describe his work, and then the next instant, to not quite capture what it is.

The patterns created have a primitive feel, but by a native that has seen a city. It reminded me of hieroglyphics, magic runes, hex signs, or cave paintings. In one picture I was looking down into an eddy and seeing all the life swimming there. In another painting I could make out the shapes of sails, another the outlines of mountains, or wind, or the rays of the sun.

The shapes he discovers are flowing and broken at the same time. You are able to see the organic items of the landscapes he paints seemingly grow and move. The viewer is witnessing ghosts caught in an instant; a vague dream of a memory of feeling; veiled references to concrete objects obscured by time.

Whitting is also a pastor in Maryland, and to him spirituality is an integral part of art. “It gives an echo and resonance to painting. I’ve always looked for answers in life, and you can find it through art. The underlying creative process is that answer.”