This section showcases Amy Ione’s paintings from throughout her career. Other tabs sort by decades, topics, time periods, and so forth.
Luca Cambiaso (1527-1585) was a Genoese School painter and draughtsperson. He visited Rome at least twice and Michelangelo was a powerful influence on the massiveness of his figures, although a softness of modeling perhaps has more in common with Correggio. Because some of his figures are constructed using simplified cubic shapes, they look remarkably modern.
Continue reading “Cubist Figures (Homage to Luca Cambiaso) (2020)”
Amy Ione
Title: Sketch (35665)
Date: 2024
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 10 x 8 x 0.75 inches (unframed)
Unsigned
Catalog Number: 35665 Continue reading “Sketch (35665) (2024)”
Rainy Day Monday is a small, compact painting created with both oil and ink. This combination juxtaposes some measure of painterly richness (from the oil) with sharper, linear, and tighter elements (from the ink). Perceptually, interweaving the media this way offers a surface with textural contrast; it is one in which boarder color fields play against the fine detail.
This unfinished composition on Masonite offers a glimpse of my painting process. The work was begun before I began my Neuroscience and Art book, which was published in 2024. This piece was set aside during the writing process and still awaits completion.
Circles—shapes associated with harmony and balance—form a central element of my visual vocabulary. While not the case here, at least not in this point of the image’s creation, in many of my works circles appear alongside ellipses. This is unsurprising given that an ellipse can be described as an elongated circle. In other words, the ellipse shape generalizes a circle, which is a special case of an ellipse. Continue reading “Unfinished Circles”
Pisces (1985) was a pivotal piece. It incorporates the Pisces symbol into the composition, and is not a narrative work in any way. Its vibrancy comes about due to the use of spirals and patterning—and it built on my discovering that creating lines with different sized pen widths added a perceptual musicality. This discovery is discussed on The First (Pisces) page.
Reflections on Water #2 continues the perceptual inquiry begun in 1991 with the Reflections on Water #1 painting. It also shifts the emphasis by re-positioning transparency, overlay, and compositional variation.
Executed on hot-pressed watercolor paper, the second of the two Reflections on Water paintings was conceived on a smoother surface. Thus, it demanded a different approach: layered color washes and varied line widths create resonance without relying on textural grain. In other words, in Reflections on Water #2 the clarity and vibrancy derive from the controlled transparency of acrylic overlays, producing luminous effects that evoke water’s shifting reflections.
This small, intimate work foregrounds “mutation” as both subject and method. It began with a vertical line of squares and with slight changes on the vertical axis, the pattern was transformed into an open column of triangles at the end. Overall, the piece expresses a noticeable change in character, appearance, function or condition on a 2-dimensional plane; a metamorphosis that adds a perceptual dynamic to the black-and-white geometries. Continue reading “Mutation Study #1 (2018)”
This is a perceptual experiment intended to convey the social dissonance in 2025. In it, the black, white and shades of gray play off the horizontal lines and a diagonal cue to create an optical illusion. At the same time, they point to the various ways in which life, society, and even ideas about what reality is are uncertain or unpredictable. Continue reading “Uncertainty and Dissonance (2025)”
Space Study #1 exemplifies my ongoing investigation into the intersection of art, science, and visual cognition. The painting’s layered hues—derived from a limited palette of red, green, and white—demonstrate how subtle shifts in chromatic balance can generate a sense of depth and spatial ambiguity. Continue reading “Space Study #1 (2002)”
Reflections on Water #1 is a seductive exploration of perceptual resonance achieved through the interplay of intuitive gesture and technological precision. Executed on rough watercolor paper, the surface’s tooth resists smooth application, producing a grainy, expressive texture. Using templates to compose the airbrush overlays, and combining this with ink linework, emphasized the tension between fluidity and structure. The painting’s vibrancy emerges from the uneven absorption of pigment, which creates shimmering effects akin to water’s reflective qualities. Thus, overall, the work embodies a dialogue between material resistance and artistic control, situating it within late 20th-century explorations of perception and surface.