Natural forms explored in Meeting House show
5 artists work in different media, but share curiosity
For The Baltimore Sun Media Group Nature is not the only subject matter explored in the group exhibit “As Seasons Turn” at The Meeting House Gallery, but it does tend to thematically link five artists.
Although they mostly work in different media, they generally have a shared curiosity about natural forms and also the interplay of shadow and light.
It’s instructive to consider two watercolors by Zina Poliszuk. In “Bag of Hydrangeas,” a bouquet of these flowers pokes out of the top of a tall paper bag. The depiction of the flowers is neat and precise, but the colors are muted. By contrast, “Abstract Hydrangeas” has much brighter colors, but they’re melting into each other.
It’s as if the flowers are being reduced to their basic shapes and colors in “Abstract Hydrangeas.”
This kind of modulation of color is something that Poliszuk also explores in two watercolors that any arts-minded kid would appreciate. In “Crayons,” several well-used crayons are lined up; the subdued coloration makes it seem like they are, umn, somehow running out of color. By contrast, “Old Box, New Crayons” features a full box of brightly-colored crayons that seem like they’re just waiting for somebody to come along and use them.
Poliszuk’s versatility within this exhibit also gets displayed in the watercolor “Shopping in Florence.” The shoppers along a narrow street in that Italian city have raised umbrellas. The artist skillfully emphasizes the rainy conditions in terms of how the water gives the street a glistening appearance.
Nature is the front and center attraction for Lissa Abrams, whose oil paintings use a chunky palette and visible brush strokes.
These landscapes are solidly present.
In “Stillness,” for instance, the trees and grass at the edge of a body of water seem capable of keeping that same appearance for season after season. Even more overtly stressing a sense of an unchanging landscape is “Once Was,” in which rustic barns and thick vegetation seem prepared to stick around for decades.
Even a scene set at the beach, “Rough Waters Ahead,” uses such heavily applied strokes of white paint to represent choppy surf that something as ephemeral as a wave seems firmly fixed in place.
On a local note, Abrams’ painting “Sweet Domino” depicts the iconic Domino Sugars sign at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. The brown-hued building is so bulky that it seems built for the ages, and even the harbor’s water is so thickly painted that it seems as permanently in place as that building.
It’s interesting that the two photographers in this show not only both often find their subjects in nature, but also deploy both black-and-white and color photography.
Neal Schlosberg’s color photos of flowers really get up close to them. “Hold Your Head Up” features a single flower atop a long stalk, with another flower in the blurry background. “Heart of Gold” and “Point Me At the Sky” get so close to flowers that you’re able to examine them in sharp detail.
The same photographer also works in black-and-white. A floral subject, “For the Roses,” gives you a clinical look at the structure of petals and buds.
Using black-and-white in a way that places it within the documentary photography tradition, “Happy Together” is a straightforward depiction of two employees and a customer at an outdoor french fry stand; they all look happy and you can’t blame them. And using black-and-white in a subtle manner, “Waiting for the Sun” depicts a cat resting behind a translucent window curtain; the shimmering light is lovely.
Also alternating between black-andwhite and color photography is David Pumplin. Although the color photo “Last Light on Half Dome, Yosemite National Park” does have a pale pink sky, the dimming light is about to give way to nocturnal darkness.
Pumplin works in black-and-white in a Maryland-shot scene, “Cascade Falls, Patapsco State Park,” in which the black-andwhite accentuates the interplay of shadow and light around the waterfall. There’s also an esthetic advantage to using black-andwhite in a scene shot in West Virginia, “Railroad Bridge, Harpers Ferry,” because the bridge’s metal structure is dramatically silhouetted.
If the above-mentioned artists rely on nature to varying degrees for their subject matter, Nicholas Parr quite literally relies on trees. Indeed, his wood bowls and dishes are made out of hickory, oak, cedar, magnolia, cherry, peach and apple. These are sleek vessels that you would be pleased to use.
“As Seasons Turn” runs through July 29 at The Meeting House Gallery, in the Oakland Mills Interfaith Center at 5885 Robert Oliver Place in Columbia. Call 410-730-4090 or go to themeetinghouse.org/art-gallery.
Although they mostly work in different media, they generally have a shared curiosity about natural forms and also the interplay of shadow and light.
It’s instructive to consider two watercolors by Zina Poliszuk. In “Bag of Hydrangeas,” a bouquet of these flowers pokes out of the top of a tall paper bag. The depiction of the flowers is neat and precise, but the colors are muted. By contrast, “Abstract Hydrangeas” has much brighter colors, but they’re melting into each other.
It’s as if the flowers are being reduced to their basic shapes and colors in “Abstract Hydrangeas.”
This kind of modulation of color is something that Poliszuk also explores in two watercolors that any arts-minded kid would appreciate. In “Crayons,” several well-used crayons are lined up; the subdued coloration makes it seem like they are, umn, somehow running out of color. By contrast, “Old Box, New Crayons” features a full box of brightly-colored crayons that seem like they’re just waiting for somebody to come along and use them.
Poliszuk’s versatility within this exhibit also gets displayed in the watercolor “Shopping in Florence.” The shoppers along a narrow street in that Italian city have raised umbrellas. The artist skillfully emphasizes the rainy conditions in terms of how the water gives the street a glistening appearance.
Nature is the front and center attraction for Lissa Abrams, whose oil paintings use a chunky palette and visible brush strokes.
These landscapes are solidly present.
In “Stillness,” for instance, the trees and grass at the edge of a body of water seem capable of keeping that same appearance for season after season. Even more overtly stressing a sense of an unchanging landscape is “Once Was,” in which rustic barns and thick vegetation seem prepared to stick around for decades.
Even a scene set at the beach, “Rough Waters Ahead,” uses such heavily applied strokes of white paint to represent choppy surf that something as ephemeral as a wave seems firmly fixed in place.
On a local note, Abrams’ painting “Sweet Domino” depicts the iconic Domino Sugars sign at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. The brown-hued building is so bulky that it seems built for the ages, and even the harbor’s water is so thickly painted that it seems as permanently in place as that building.
It’s interesting that the two photographers in this show not only both often find their subjects in nature, but also deploy both black-and-white and color photography.
Neal Schlosberg’s color photos of flowers really get up close to them. “Hold Your Head Up” features a single flower atop a long stalk, with another flower in the blurry background. “Heart of Gold” and “Point Me At the Sky” get so close to flowers that you’re able to examine them in sharp detail.
The same photographer also works in black-and-white. A floral subject, “For the Roses,” gives you a clinical look at the structure of petals and buds.
Using black-and-white in a way that places it within the documentary photography tradition, “Happy Together” is a straightforward depiction of two employees and a customer at an outdoor french fry stand; they all look happy and you can’t blame them. And using black-and-white in a subtle manner, “Waiting for the Sun” depicts a cat resting behind a translucent window curtain; the shimmering light is lovely.
Also alternating between black-andwhite and color photography is David Pumplin. Although the color photo “Last Light on Half Dome, Yosemite National Park” does have a pale pink sky, the dimming light is about to give way to nocturnal darkness.
Pumplin works in black-and-white in a Maryland-shot scene, “Cascade Falls, Patapsco State Park,” in which the black-andwhite accentuates the interplay of shadow and light around the waterfall. There’s also an esthetic advantage to using black-andwhite in a scene shot in West Virginia, “Railroad Bridge, Harpers Ferry,” because the bridge’s metal structure is dramatically silhouetted.
If the above-mentioned artists rely on nature to varying degrees for their subject matter, Nicholas Parr quite literally relies on trees. Indeed, his wood bowls and dishes are made out of hickory, oak, cedar, magnolia, cherry, peach and apple. These are sleek vessels that you would be pleased to use.
“As Seasons Turn” runs through July 29 at The Meeting House Gallery, in the Oakland Mills Interfaith Center at 5885 Robert Oliver Place in Columbia. Call 410-730-4090 or go to themeetinghouse.org/art-gallery.
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