Using mundane, found objects as canvases for painting seems to be a trend right now. Some do it better than others, among them David Cass. Tins, cardboard boxes, beer coasters, old nautical maps and antique pulleys serve him well.

David Cass Ask (2023) egg tempera, watercolour & pencil on photo mount

David Cass Refuse (2024) oil on wooden box lid

David Cass Commit (2022-2023) oil on bus blind on board

David Cass Work in progress for ‘Where Once the Waters.’ 

David Cass “Pulley I – Rockport, ME” (2023-24), oil on marine pulley

His depictions of light on water are appealing, focussed on the structure and utility of water, rather than some etherial glow that uplifts traditional seascapes. According to reviews he is also concerned with climate change and pollution of the oceans, but that cannot easily be deducted from the paintings – at least not by me. (I also, admittedly, always wonder if we all, I am not excluding my own work, need to push an agenda, offer something that has “meaning”, rather than just focus on depicting the beauty that is. A topic for a different day.)

Light on Water

Cass is currently exhibited at The Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh. I wish I could see the show. From the images of the gallery walls, it seems that seeing the work in bulk, many paintings next to each other, helps to get a sense of representation, rather than abstraction – a curious mix in each individual painting, with abstraction dominating for me while looking at individual work.

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I tried to think if that combination was familiar to me from famous paintings of water. Of course, Turner comes to mind:

J. M. W. Turner Snow Storm: Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth (1842.)

Or looking only at the water in Monet’s depiction (but there you are too distracted by the whole scene.)

Contemporary efforts:

Carina Francioso The Ionian Shimmers (2019) Oil on wood panel

In any case, it all reminds me of the fact that I have not been at the ocean once this summer, despite living so close to it. That tells you all you need to know about how my summer has gone…. the energy reservoir too depleted. Luckily there are the archives, allowing visual remembrance. Here, then, light not on but above the water, from previous excursions.

Here is Ravel’s Jeux d’Eau