CAROLYN
BRADY
February
5 - March 8
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| Unlike
Brady's past exhibitions, which focused around her three main themes: still
lifes or tablescapes, flower-filled gardens, interior still lifes combined
with vistas from nature, this exhibition focuses on summer light with images
captured in and around the artist's home in Vinalhaven, Maine. For most
of her career Brady has worked in watercolor from photographs she takes
in her home, be it the house she occupied in Baltimore for over 20 years,
the apart-ment where she now resides in New York, or her summer haven, a
tiny cottage in Maine. |
Carolyn Brady,
Borage and Pale Pink Roses in the Anemone Vase/Maine
watercolor on paper, 30 x 36 inches, 2005
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Carolyn Brady,
Blue Pools Lunch I in the Bean House
watercolor on paper, 20 3/4 x 29 7/8 inches, 2003 |
Much
has been written about the import "of place" vis-a-vis Brady and other contemporary
artists. The motif of place, Vinalhaven, is like a musical thread that weaves
through the artist's work. Brady's summer paintings are always recognizable:
saturated with light, shimmering waters are viewed through the window's
frame, bouquets of wild flowers perfume the air--and the season is palpable.
The artist has
written: "During the winter I dream of being in Maine. Summers we live on
a granite island surrounded by a lens of light from the water and are restored
by the sea air. We have a vegetable garden, not very elaborate, where we
struggle to keep out the deer and pheasants. My husband grows many kinds
of fingerling potatoes. A friend with a large, sunny vegetable garden makes
a bamboo structure in the middle of her garden. |
| She
grows scarlet runner beans, which eventually cover the top with big foliage,
red orange clusters of flowers and big dripping flat beans. Late in the
summer we start having lunches inside the bean house. It is an enchanting
experience. I began taking photos to try to capture the giddy pleasure of
being there. I think these are the most narrative pictures I've ever made.
I've been painting two years to convey in pictures some idyllic summer moments
and how one can experience looking at all the beautiful flowers and vegetables
in the natural world, as well as how we greet them in our aesthetic lives."
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Carolyn Brady,
Bean House Lunch
watercolor on paper, 42 1/2 x 63 inches, 2003
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Carolyn Brady,
Orange Red Garden Poppy
watercolor on paper, 7 x 10 1/4 inches, 2004
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Brady
has shared notes on a few of her paintings as follows: "The "Blue Pools"
lunch series I painted as a little film of five rectangular pictures conveying
a sense of time. There is a portrait of two friends in the bean house, "Bean
House Lunch," which evokes, I hope, the magic moment of dappled light, sun,
pleasures. "Sea Blue" is a view out my kitchen window on a clear day when
the light hits the water, making diamonds. The flowers are annuals from
the vegetable garden, which look like they are about to take off windward.
"Bean House with Garlic and Borage" is a large vertical painting of the
bean house before the picnic table appears.
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| The
bean house is filled with borage flowers, in the center is a birdbath, and
the garlic has been left to make its exotic flowers. A few johnny jump-ups
peek out." For Brady, it is a combination of place and what it signifies
that fills her summer idylls: the joy of place, the particularity of summer
experiences--picnics, meals shared outside, views out her living room window
to the lagoon, which changes with each shift in light, clear blue skies
with rarely a cloud, a simple life surrounded by friends. |
Carolyn Brady,
Red Rose in Blue Tea Glass
watercolor on paper, 10 x 7 inches, 2004 |
Carolyn Brady,
Blue Pools Lunch IV in the Bean House
watercolor on paper, 21 x 30 inches, 2004
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The
water-colors in this exhibition range from the artist's most ambitious in
monumental scale, "Bean House with Garlic and Borage" to the most intimate
in scale, "Orange-Red Garden Poppy," each brimming with all that Vinalhaven
signifies. |
| Carolyn
Brady was born in Chickasha, Oklahoma in 1937. She received her B.F.A. from
the University of Oklahoma at Norman and her M.F.A. from the same institution.
She has taught at the University of Missouri in Saint Louis. |
Carolyn Brady,
Blue Pools Lunch V in the Bean House
watercolor on paper, 21 x 30 inches, 2005 |
Carolyn Brady,
Bean House with Garlic and Borage
watercolor on paper, 67 1/2 x 44 1/2 inches, 2004 |
Carolyn
Brady's work has been widely shown throughout the country at the Academy
of the Arts, Easton, Maryland; The Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock; The
Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois; Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland; Boise
Art Museum, Idaho; The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio;
The Canton Museum of Art, Ohio; Center for the Arts, Vero Beach, Florida;
Columbia Museum of Art, South Carolina; Davenport Museum of Art, Iowa; William
A. Farnsworth Library and Art Museum, Rockland, Maine; Fort Wayne Museum
of Art, Indiana; Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, Tennessee;
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| Indianapolis
Museum of Art, Indiana; Jacksonville Art Museum, Florida; Minneapolis Institute
of Art, Minnesota; Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, North Carolina; University
of Missouri at Kansas City and St. Louis; Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale;
Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; The Monmouth Museum, Lincroft, New
Jersey; Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor, New York; National Academy
of Design, New York; National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.;
Newport Art Museum, Rhode Island; University of Oklahoma, Norman; Oklahoma
City Art Museum, Oklahoma; Oklahoma State University, Stillwater; Orlando
Museum of Art, Florida; Palmer Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania State University,
University Park; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia; |
Carolyn Brady,
Yellow Lily Frolic
watercolor on paper, 10 1/4 x 7 inches, 2004 |
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Carolyn Brady,
Blue Pools Lunch II in the
Second Bean House
watercolor on paper, 21 x 30 inches, 2003
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The
Philbrook Museum, Tulsa; Pittsburgh Art Center, Pennsylvania; Portland Museum
of Art, Maine; Art Gallery, University of Rhode Island, Kingston; John and
Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida; San Antonio Museum of Art,
Texas; Springfield Art Museum, Missouri; Wilson Arts Center/The Harvey School,
Rochester, New York; Wichita Art Museum, Kansas; Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts;
among others. Her work has also been shown abroad at The Miyagi Museum of
Art, Miyagi; Sogo Museum of Art, Yokohama; Tokushima Modern Art Museum,
Tokushima; Museum of Modern Art, Shiba; and Kochi Prefectural Museum of
Folk Art, Kochi, Japan. |
| Carolyn
Brady's work is represented in numerous public collections, among them:
The Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock; The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois;
The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio; The Canton Museum
of Art, Ohio; Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington; Evansville Museum of Arts
and Science, Indiana; William A. Farnsworth Library and Art Museum, Rockland,
Maine; Flint Institute of Arts, Michigan; Huntsville Museum of Art, Alabama;
Indiana University Art Museum, Indianapolis, Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum,
San Antonio; |
Carolyn Brady,
Violet Pink Garden Poppy
watercolor on paper, 7 x 10 1/4 inches, 2004 |
Carolyn Brady,
Sea Blue
watercolor on paper, 44 1/2 x 33 1/2 inches, 2004 |
The
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina;
National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.;
The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.; The New Britain
Museum of American Art, Connecticut; Norton Gallery and School of Art, West
Palm Beach, Florida; Oklahoma Art Center, Oklahoma City; University of Oklahoma,
Museum of Art, Norman; Orlando Museum of Art, Florida; The Philbrook Museum
of Art, Tulsa, Oklahoma; University of Rochester Museum, New York; St. Louis
Art Museum, Missouri; J.B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville; Springfield Art
Museum, Missouri; Tampa Museum of Art, Florida; Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts.
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| Carolyn
Brady resides in New York. |
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| Exhibition December 2003 |
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Carolyn
Brady Prints |
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Carolyn
Brady Artist Page |
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