52 Artists Magazine January/February 2020
John Salminen
PERFECT COMPLEMENTSWatercolorist John Salminen
(johnsalminen.com) saw
Edward Steichen’s famous
1905 photograph of the
Flatiron Building looming
mysteriously in the gloom
long before he ever saw the
skyscraper in person. “I loved
the evocative mood Steichen
captured, and the first time
I went to New York, I made
sure to visit the Flatiron,”
says Salminen. “It remains
one of my favorite pieces of
Manhattan architecture.”
For his own painting of
the building, Salminen chose
to portray it “through the
organic and unpredictable
natural forms of the adjacent
Madison Square Park.” In
Flatiron II (left), Salminen
depicts leafless trees covering
the shadowed skyscraper in
a lacelike veil. The branches
bend and angle wildly in
every direction, acting as
a foil to the weighty, solid
presence of the Flatiron
Building in the background.
“Mood—atmosphere as emo-
tion—is something people
respond to,” says the artist.
The foreground of the com-
position is alive with texture,
yet the viewer gets only a
glimpse of the building’s
detailed façade. The scene
offers, as Salminen says, “the
perfect set of complements.”Flatiron II
by John Salminen
watercolor on paper, 30x22“Mood—atmosphere as emotion—
is something people respond to.”
JOHN SALMINEN