May 5th – June 21st, 2024
Artists’ Reception: Thursday, May 16th from 6-8 pm
with a Brief Gallery Talk at 7pm
In this exhibit of three groups of paintings – Vines, Between the Vines and Nature’s Ephemera – artist, Lynn Parkllan, raises questions about beauty and subject. In describing her exhibit, Lynn says that “this collection represents my purpose as a painter: to use color and attention to overlooked wonders as ways to celebrate the spirit of nature’s infinite and remarkable beauty.”
Vines (from Artist’s Description)
“Invasive wild grapevines presented themselves in a spotlight of sun during a walk in Maybury State Park. Sinuous, strong and sculptural, they united the trees to which they clung and framed the warm glow of afternoon light. After painting one, I needed to paint more. So, I took more walks and more photos, adding more vines in each subsequent painting, until two seemed to be walls of vines. The hunger for this subject didn’t stop until I had a series of five paintings.
Between the Vines
In this series, Lynn has painted the negative space between the vines.
In her description the Lynn writes, “On first view, you might not guess that these abstract paintings have anything to do with vines. If you step back from them, however, you’ll notice the curves and drape of vines although no solid vine form appears. What started as a background layer lurched into conception of an abstract color painting. Exploration of shape, sizes, purposes of color, and additions of imagined shapes progressed with each new painting in the series. I hope that though abstract, each Between the Vines painting feels inspired by nature.”
Ephemera (from Artist’s Description)
“Natural ephemera, exists for a short time. In my paintings I try to convey the fleeting beauty of nature’s ephemera such as the soft grid of shadows on the lawn or the dark-blue sky contrasting the golds, reds, and oranges of fall in a meadow. I use color to express how it feels to be in the woods hunting frogs with my grandson in a favorite vernal pond. To me, seeing and painting nature’s ephemera conjure awe, discovery and delight, over and over.”
Lynn Parkllan’s Artist Statement
I am a landscape artist who often combines realism with color field painting using acrylic paint. I hope to capture the spirit of a subject rather than an inclusive view. Spirit, color and overlooked or ephemeral subjects drive my paintings.
I reach for abstraction, too. In the abstract Between the Vines paintings in this exhibit, I focus attention on the negative spaces around and between vines. These spaces, full of color and light, look abstract because no real object, no vine, appears in the composition. The spaces, however, quietly define an aspect of the vines. I hope viewers will stand back, notice and respond to echoes of vine curves, bends and reach.
And color! Choosing colors rather than recording native colors is another way I am free to creatively express the spirit of my subject. When I start a new painting, choosing a soulful subject is most important. Choosing a color palette comes second but puts the “soul” in “soulful subject”.
My paintings are never born from intellectual arguments. Most begin with an urge to examine views that seem to go unobserved, such as the texture and color of an ephemeral paper wasp nest. The only portrait I’ve ever painted portrays my husband with fierce Maori-like face tattoos. It’s a metaphor, but that’s the limit of my conscious messaging.
This doesn’t mean, however, that emotions don’t leak out and perhaps become part of the subjects I paint. Go ahead: try to figure out why One Vine, More Vines, Wondrous Strange, Divine, and Crazy Vines compelled me to paint them one after another. One friend asked, “Are the two that are crowded with vines coming to get you or protecting you?” What do you think? Of course, I’ll neither confirm nor deny any theories. Your experiences with my paintings and mine can be different. Hopefully they all enrich us.
-Lynn Parkllan
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The Woods Gallery is located in the lower level of the Huntington Woods Library and is open during library hours.