Primordial II by James Edward Scherbarth

Dark stones drift through a mossy yellow haze, as though seen from the bottom of a pond.

Primordial II is an oil and cold wax on paper by James Edward Scherbarth (1949-2021), signed, titled and dated 2019 en verso. Cold wax painting generally relies on thin, translucent layers, so shapes beneath can glow through the surface. Here the image is a field of olive and ochre, scattered with rounded dark forms of different sizes. Faint loops and arcs in dusty pink drift between them. The edges of the painted area are deckled and soft against a wide white border. It is 8 inches wide and 12 high.

The beginning of things, it seems, was mostly green.