Image of the Day, March 7, 2012

By Donna Poulton

“And there were the trees, clumped together in patches of woods left standing between stretches of fields—the sunlight, broken and spotted, streaming through tangled branches, illuminating trunks, bent, twisted and straight, that cast shadows across the … ground.” -- Bonnie Posselli

Utah artist Bonnie Posselli is well known for her red-rock images of the desert southwest and her painterly pastoral landscapes of rural Utah farmland. She counts John F. Carlson, LeConte Stewart and Edgar Payne among the artists whose techniques and styles have informed her work … but they never painted like this. Her paintings, Through the Looking Glass and Subtlety are strong images of delicate light held together by a tapestry of branches and luminosity.

Bonnie Posselli, Through the Looking Glass, 1992, oil 30x 24 in. Credit: Bonnieposselli.com The broken color and tonal variations transport the viewer to sun-drenched cathedrals--the branches acting as the lead in the stained glass windows--holding the picture together.  The tonal impression of light and movement reverberate in these scenes painted by this talented artist.

Bonnie Posselli, Subtlety, 1994, oil 10x 20 in. Credit: Bonnieposselli.comHer book, The Paintings of Bonnie Posselli can be found at BonniePosselli.com:

Credit: bonnieposselli.com

Painting of the Day, January 16, 2012

By Donna Poulton

Kathryn Stats, Spider Rock (Canyon De Chelly), c. 2008, oil, 40 x 30 in. Credit: permission of Kathryn Stats and the Greenhouse Gallery Searching for the next landscape composition is, for Kathryn D. Stats, like hunting for treasure; she explains that “when a top crust of rock breaks off and falls down the slopes of softer eroded layers, it reminds me of crude jewels fallen from the crown to decorate the shoulders of softer layers below.”  Like her famous great uncle, artist LeConte Stewart, she rarely used the color green, preferring instead hues of grey, peach, violet and terra cotta, colors of the desert southwest. Her vigorous brushwork and strong chromatic contrasts amplify the dizzying height of the great canyon.

In Canyon De Chelly, she found eroded layers in 800 ft. Spider Rock. According to Navajo legend, Spider Woman sprang from the rock to give humans the knowledge to defend themselves. Legend also maintains the end of the world will happen at Spider Rock.

Painting of the Day, December 9, 2011

By Donna Poulton

"Winter is lovely to paint because…you’ve got a beautiful harmony of color relationships—the lavenders in the road. Every note of color has a relationship." - LeConte Stewart

LeConte Stewart once said he “would rather paint then eat.” He was one of Utah’s most important regional artists because of his style and because he concentrated on a narrow valley hugging the foothills of the Wasatch mountains. For more than seventy-five years he painted the urban and rural landscape of northern Utah. Preferring the outdoors to the studio, he could often be seen at the side of a road or out in a field sketching or painting. People knew that if he didn’t acknowledge you when you walked by, he didn’t want to be bothered, but if he said hello, it was a signal that he welcomed the company.

LeConte Stewart (1890-1991), Untitled, c. 1949, oil, location unknown

For more information on Stewart you might be interested in this post about a current exhibition of his work.