Original Painting: Elsewhere by James Edward Scherbarth

Violet ground, a black sky, and a red that has made up its mind.

James Edward Scherbarth (1949-2021) painted Elsewhere in oil and cold wax on cradle board, signed and dated 2019 on the reverse. A rigid cradled panel suits this method, since the medium is built in thick layers and worked with scrapers and blades that would strain a canvas. The composition reads almost as a landscape: near-black at upper left, soft yellow at right, then bands of orange, lilac and two reds below. Thin dark lines run down through the orange like rain or roots. Twenty-four inches square.

The title asks where. The painting declines to say.