Archive: Arts & Entertainment

After many years of teaching art, Lansing High School retired art teacher, Patricia Brown, now focuses her creativity on painting in her Wild Spirit Art Studio in Lansing.   She is a new member at State of the Art Gallery in Ithaca and is part of the 'New Work from New Members' show running December 31 through January 31 at the Gallery.

The first painting on display, 'Transition', for which her part of the show is titled, is from the Straight From the Hip Series.  It shows spirits passing through the pelvis, the place of their birth, into the next realm.

Brown says, "It seems that every time I approach a new artwork I cross a threshold into a new reality.   There, I respond physically to the model, space, atmosphere, light, color and paint.  In this new territory, I try to remain open and spontaneous in recording this experience. I tend to work quickly and intensely trusting my intuitive choices."

UntitledThe seven figurative works on view were created last August in an intensive two weeks working with models David and Sarah.

"Although I have drawn them for many years, each time I discover something new.  In these works I became intrigued with the relationship between the models and fellow artists in the studio."

The five abstract works were painted in a two-week retreat at the Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts in October.  Brown decided to work without a model, dwelling in an inner landscape of memory and imagination.   She worked with the focus of painting spontaneously while trusting her decisions.  "I experimented freely, played with materials and explored a variety of approaches to developing abstract compositions."

It was not until Brown and a friend looked at the figurative and abstract artworks side by side that the similarities between them became evident. In some pairings it looks as though she had looked at the figurative work to record color, texture, space in an abstract composition. This was not the case.  Brown conjectures, "Perhaps memories of previous paintings came back subconsciously.  Perhaps the approaches to mark making, texture, and color are truly mine.  The truth lies somewhere in the Transition."

There will be two receptions for this show – January 2nd and Ithaca Gallery Night January 9th.

v11i2