Paul Allen Reed utilized geometric forms and “stripes, grids or curvilinear shapes filled with luminous, transparent colors.” Reed’s boldly radiant, diluted acrylic hues were applied and stained directly onto his raw canvases, thereby creating vivid color fields. Examining color relationships, he painted circles surrounded by hard-edged formal compositions and zigzags. “I have a saying. [Jackson] Pollock dripped, [Helen] Frankenthaler poured, Morris Louis poured. Howard Mehring sprinkled. I blot,” said Reed.
Source: Peyton Wright Gallery, AskArt
“Paul Allen Reed was a central figure in the Washington Color School, a group of mid-century abstract painters who rejected the gestural brushstrokes of Abstract Expressionism and emphasized the vibrancy and complexity of color. Reed came to be identified with Washington Colorists like Kenneth Noland and Morris Louis after he was included in the landmark traveling exhibition “The Washington Color Painters” in 1965. Like his peers, Reed was primarily concerned with color. He used bold acrylic hues that bled into and stained his raw canvases, creating vivid color fields. Believing geometric forms to be the best conduits for his explorations into chromatic relationships, Reed painted circles surrounded by radiating color and hard-edged formal compositions zig-zags or colored grids.”
Source: https://www.artsy.net/artwork/paul-allen-reed-barcelona
