Museums are full of surprises. Exhibit is a regular series highlighting my visits to art museums regionally and abroad. Terrifyingly, I give you a peek into my mind as I connect with art, history, and culture. Through personal essays, reflections, and uncontrolled gushing, I'll share the moments that moved me, challenged me, and left me pondering long after I left the museum. You can find all posts in this series here.
Fox Clark Gallery in Indiana, PA, wrapped up a really cool exhibit a few weeks ago that they titled “The Fishing Net”. In their own words:
There is something similar about the fisherman who throws a net into the ocean and pulls it in, never quite knowing what will rise to the surface, and the artist who reaches out into the world, gathering inspiration, gaining experience, contemplating, wondering, dreaming, analyzing... and then pours all that they have gathered out into their art. This exhibition seeks to give viewers a glimpse into that process, which is as rich and varied as the artwork it produces.
This exhibit made concrete why the sketchbooks and studies of famous artists are collated, annotated, and published as art books: there’s something magical (sometimes divine) in seeing how artists work. It’s why artists talk so much about “the process” when describing their quotidian work. A completed piece of art - even one created a la prima - is almost never a single moment in time. Rather, it is the culmination of several moments over time1. But it’s all one work of art. Seeing the artist’s process ultimately manifests the depth and breadth of the finished product.
One of my favorite local abstract artists is Beth Yoe Fiddler. I think she does lovely work with wonderful designs. She wrote extensively about her process:
Sometimes, the hardest part of beginning a painting is BEGINNING. A perfectly white and empty canvas can be very intimidating. When I returned from my recent trip to England and Scotland, the intimidation was less, because my head was filled with new images and new colors and different light, and I was ready to paint. …
She continues:
THE PROCESS
Observe and absorb
Photograph
Sketch
Make notes
Stand in front of canvas and gather courage …
Paint and collage a compositional framework
Paint
Contemplate
Collage
Contemplate
Paint
Contemplate
Collage
Contemplate
Repeat until done
Decide upon title
Contemplate
Paint or college until (actually) done
STOP AND MOVE ON TO THE NEXT PAINTING
There’s so much to unpack and admire here! I’ll only note how much I admire the thoughtfulness of her artwork: “contemplate” is mentioned more times than any other part of Fiddler’s process. I think it’s that sort of thoughtfulness that speaks so clearly in her artwork.
Jonelle Summerfield is another local artist whom I admire greatly. (And whom I will hopefully get to interview soon for Beyond the Canvas!) Her economy of stroke, color choice, mastery over value, and compositional prowess is exceptional. This piece is interesting if for no other reason than, to my eye, it is done. Yet, as Summerfield states, “I left this unfinished for fear of messing it up. I liked the fresh brushstrokes and didn’t want it to look overworked.” Again, she is very economical with her brushwork, so that fear (which I think is unwarranted) makes sense in terms of her approach.
That said, I actually like this as a reason for not finishing a piece. Being “courageous” in art in terms of trying new things just to see what they do does make sense, and it’s important for artists to get over the fear of mucking up a painting. But this is, I think, something different: it’s not fear of messing up her art that stopped Summerfield from pursuing her painting to “completion”, it’s more a sense of “this is complete; anything else I do can only attenuate the effect I’m going for”. It takes an experienced artist’s eye to know when to apply the breaks even if a piece has remaining “empty spaces”2.
There was just a lot of really great art-in-process at this exhibition; but to avoid the length of my last entry in this series, I’ll conclude with what I thought was a super-innovative approach to the entire concept: the work of Beth Wheeler3. Beth was painting these three beautiful landscapes that she’s worked over gold leaf. At the start of the exhibit, the panels looked like the image above. By the end, they looked like the image below. Beth had actually worked on these pieces while they were on display - during open hours, no less.
Not only do I think this is brilliant, I also really loved watching the progress and seeing how her artistic mind worked through the puzzle that is a landscape painting. Seeing where an artist comes from really does add depth and beauty to their work.
I think this is especially the case for Summerfield. If you peruse her current body of work, you’ll see that this “incompleteness” is not the norm. It takes more courage to stop despite your instincts and habits telling you to keep moving forward.
I had never thought about the start/stop process that goes into paintings. My idea was have an idea and put it on canvas--if it's not what you want, start again. This just makes more sense--even to walk away for a week or two and come back to finish or add. nice.