Ekphrasis

When John Varriano would take his easel out to do his urban landscapes on the streets of New York City, he was captivated by the people moving by. In essence, the moving pedestrians would transform the scene before him from a static composition to an ever-changing dynamic one. For a period of time, he accepted the norm established by the Impressionist painters, of quickly painting the figures as blobs, dots, and dashes as they walked by. However, being a figurative artist by nature, John decided that he wanted to capture people with more expression and realism in his works.

He realized that his memory for images was quite accurate. Along with his paints and easel, he began bringing out a sketchpad. He would intensely study the people as they quickly moved by, taking the equivalent of a quick mental picture, and would rapidly sketch it. He found the process intense, yet somewhat amusing. “By the time I would finish the sketch of the person walking by, they would already have moved a few blocks into the distance. I was left behind with my drawing which now recorded something from the recent past.”

The purpose of all of these drawings and studies was to record the figures which would later populate his larger paintings, such as the much-admired, 86 th Street Rush. In time he realized that these studies could be painted, and had intrinsic qualities of their own. He would leave these beautiful works in various shades and tones of grey. He began to refer to these figures as his ‘Ghosts’, because “they had vanished like a vapor, and were now part of the past.”

This ‘Ghost’ painting is named Trench coat because that was the thing that stuck in his mind’s eye the most. It is amazing to realize that as this figure enters the scene from the left, he will momentarily exit the scene at the right. In these works, Varriano is miraculously painting time, as well as space.