East Austin’s Lydia Street Gallery will honor the work of Madelon Umlauf in the exhibit, "Harmonizing the Rapture of Color." Umlauf, daughter of Charles (of Austin’s notable Umlauf Sculpture Garden) and Angeline, was born in Austin in 1942. She pursued her art education at the University of Texas in Austin, as well as New York City. Madelon taught painting for 30 years at Austin Community College, while also painting for herself in a downtown Austin studio.

Umlauf's paintings are inspired by nature. Starting with natural motifs, she then reworks her discoveries into abstract paintings. The paintings achieve their finality when their forms in illusionistic deep space, come into dynamic and coloristic balance. Although her paintings are inspired by nature, she often chooses color palettes which are atypical of the usual colors one sees in nature and attracted to round paintings because they do not have ratios. Most paintings, being rectangular, have various ratios of width to height, but human binocular vision is circular in format. By virtue of taking over one’s oval of vision, the aesthetic impact of round paintings is stronger than that of rectangular paintings.

Ancient civilizations acknowledged the circle as a sacred shape. Madelon's work reflects a belief that abstract art is the key to a full comprehension of reality. Her work is meant to elicit an interpretation, one that leaves the realm of experience open to intuition as a main factor of transformation.

Following the opening reception, the exhibit will be on display until October 30.