David Richard Gallery is pleased to present Blue Passage, a solo exhibition and debut of new paintings by artist Ben Woolfitt in his first presentation with the gallery. Always exploring non-objective abstraction and inspired by Color Field painting, Woolfitt’s process-driven paintings begin and end with surface and color. These newest works start with waves and swaths of gesso that provide the first step in his process. Applying pigment in layers with each mark and gesture in response to the prior additions, the colors and imagery organically evolve filling the canvas and running off the edges in every direction. The variety of media, including acrylic paint, dry pigment, metallic leaf, and graphite and the al over painting makes the work dynamic, full of intrigue. Depending upon the range of palettes from predominantly black and white to blue, black and white with each having sprays of colors in the grounds or moving toward the surface evocative of astral skies, the cosmos, or the depths of the sea.