Sonnet XII, 2019. Acrylic on canvas, 18 x 18”Sonnet XI, 2019. Acrylic on canvas, 18 x 18”

Sonnet X, 2019. Acrylic on wood panel, 12 x 12”

Sonnet IX, 2019. Acrylic on canvas, 12 x 12”

Sonnet I, 2019. Acrylic on canvas, 12 x 12”

Sonnet II, 2019. Acrylic on canvas, 12 x 12”

Sonnet IV, 2019. Acrylic on wood panel, 12 x 12”

Sonnet I, 2019. Acrylic on canvas, 12 x 12”

Sonnets

I made these paintings after coming home from a month long period in Switzerland on an arts fellowship.  I had enjoyed this time of intense painting, but I had also missed my husband very much, and when I came home I found myself drawn to read Shakespeare’s sonnets, many of which concern love and the writer’s feelings for the beloved. I read carefully and took notes. At some point I decided to try to make paintings that would convey something of the mood of each sonnet.  So that’s what these paintings are: mood pieces based on Shakespeare’s sonnets.  Some of the paintings, like the sonnets, are melancholy, even dark; some are more joyful.  Somewhere in the painting I would write the first line of the sonnet.  The mood is defined by the colors I choose, by the types of lines I draw, and by the relationship of the often square patches of color in the pieces and the free flowing lines running through and around them. I think of it as a kind of dance that takes place between lines and colors.

Sanda Iliescu, Notes on Work, 2019