CalendarAdvertiseDistributionArchiveShopAboutContact
Close
Best of Erie 2019
News & Politics
Events
Music
Arts & Culture
Opinion
Food & Drink
Issues Archive
Web Only
Events Calendar
Advertise
More
Business
Community
Environment
Erie at Large
Features
Film
From the Editors
Jen Sorensen Cartoons
Just Toyin' Witcha
Music Reviews
Sports
Theater
Distribution Locations
About Us
Contact Us
Shop
Issue Archives
Internship Opportunities
Write for Us
Local Voices
Share:

?Visual Experiences: October Spirit,? Works by Mary Hamilton

October Spirit" is now showing at Kada. Art Critic Luke Gehring reviews Mary Hamilton's exhibit.

by Erie Reader Author November 16, 2011 at 3:00 PM
Contributed photo

"I do whatever it takes!" Mary Hamilton told me, "I paint what I know, and living in the country, I often find my subjects just by walking out the door and into my field or down the road. But wherever I go, I'm always looking for places that speak to me."

Perhaps still best known for her watercolors, Mary was taught to paint with acrylics in college and has returned home to that medium. This exhibition, hosted by Kada Gallery is the culmination of efforts in both media.

Visually, her watercolors fit into what could be called the American school of watercolor, which originally used the medium as plein air (on-site) preliminary sketches for more "serious" oil paintings completed in the studio later. That is until collectors began to see that these watercolors were great works in their own right and often more interesting than the "serious" completed works. Criteria and rules developed as to what a proper American watercolor should be, ignoring the fact that watercolor is an ancient medium and nearly every culture has had its own take on it.

"And who developed these rules anyway?!" she exclaimed "I just do whatever it takes to get the image I want."

Mary's watercolors do have the wet spontaneous effects of many classic American watercolors. "I put my watercolor paper up straight on my easel, and let the paint drip or run, or whatever it wants to do," she explained. But it isn't as simple as that.

Along with the spontaneity of allowing the paint to do as it will, with a keen eye she imposes structure, however minimally, such as the small grove of trees in "December Fire," to keep balance between the controlled and the uncontrolled.

Along with traditional watercolor paper, Mary has begun to use the new watercolor gesso to paint on canvas.

Viewers who know Mary only from her watercolors may find the darkness of her acrylics startling. "I can't ever get it dark enough…You have to have it that dark in order to be able to see the light," she says.

Like Ansel Adams, who found that very early morning or late evening afforded the most interesting light effects on the landscapes he photographed, Mary has found that the contrast of light and dark in those hours give her the most intriguing effects. This is illustrated by one of my favorite works in the show, "Road to Everywhere," a view of the road leading from her home on a frosty morning, with the dawn light keeping the ground dark and mysterious while illuminating the tops of the autumn colored trees.

In some cases, such as "Al's Corner," she has resorted to the old master trick of starting with a dark gesso in order to keep the painting brooding and moody, rather than a white gesso, which allows the light to pass through the pigment to bounce off the gesso to give a bright and luminous appearance.

The Acrylic medium allows her to become very painterly, such as with her garden as seen in "Mill Street Across the Road From the Fultons and Chaffees." Here the brush strokes become very free and impressionistic and called to my mind paintings of Claude Monet's garden at Giverny. But whereas this garden is comprised of brightly saturated color, she achieves brushy affects that are no less wonderful in "My Paradise," which is much earthier but no less rich and warm.

As pleasant as all these little trips into autumn and winter landscapes were, the painting that I kept coming back to was "Pymatuning Evening," which she described as being "different from all my other pieces. It has no 'fru-fra.'" Well, if it is fru-fra-less it certainly didn't need it. It is a quieting view of land and water, with clouds being the only movement in an otherwise still scene. The color of the sky captures that particular twilight hue. The foreground is kept an empty plain of darker blue, allowing the painting to breathe. And just for balance, her signature in cerulean appears there to the right.

The harmonious whole of this work added a particularly poignant moment for me, in a show of many such moments. Yes indeed, Mary Hamilton did what it took.

##
This exhibition continues Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. and Saturdays, 10 a.m. until 4 p.m., until November 21 at the Kada Gallery, 2632 W. Eighth St.

Featured Events

Today Tomorrow This Weekend

Philharmonic Chorus Holiday Soiree

Music
Dec. 12th, 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM

Disney on Ice: Worlds of Enchantment

Dance
Dec. 12th, 7 PM

Erie Swings

Dance
Dec. 12th, 7 PM to 10 PM

Happy Cole

Comedy
Dec. 12th, 7 PM

Messiah

Music
Dec. 13th, 2 PM

Submit Your Event   View Calendar

We List You a Merry Christmas
Erie Reader: Vol. 9, No. 25
View Past Issues
In This Issue

Popular This Week

A Hero in the Midst of Cowards

Erie's 40 Under 40: Class of 2019

Art's Bakery Follows Timeless Recipe

Best of Erie Voting NOW OPEN

World of Music's Heart and Soul Art Show

Related Articles

Visual Experiences: The Art of Healing

by Erie Reader Author8/8/2012, 9:30 AM
Art heals. That?s no news to artists, but it may seem an audacious claim to others.

Visual Experiences: D'Hopkins Denniston Gallery's Grand Opening Featuring the Work of Bob Ichter

by Erie Reader Author6/13/2012, 10:00 AM
This gallery is quite unlike others. It isn?t a big room with paintings around the walls and a sculpture in the middle. Rather, it is two galleries: one on the ground level, with a larger, lovelier gallery on second floor, which in turn is a series of smaller galleries set up like parlors, offices, and dining rooms with art in them??a real gallery,? as one of my companions on a recent visit said.

Visual Experiences: The Passage North

by Erie Reader Author4/18/2012, 9:31 AM
An Installation by Willie Jordan

Visual Experience: The Heart of Art: Recent Works by Fran Schanz

by Erie Reader Author2/8/2012, 4:56 PM
Francis T. Schanz is one of the most important artists in Erie. There, Luke said it. And he says a lot more. Read on, dear Reader readers, read on.

Visual Experiences

by Erie Reader Author12/14/2011, 1:00 PM
'Tis the season, and the walls are decked--with art. Art Critic Luke Gehring weighs in on the NPAA show currently on display at the Erie Art Museum.

Visual Experiences: DysFUNctional

by Erie Reader Author12/1/2011, 11:30 AM
Who took the 'fun' out of 'dysfunctional'? And where is that fun? Art Critic Luke Gehring explores the exhibit currently on displace at the Erie Art Museum.
© 2019 Great Lakes Online Media
1001 State Street  //  Erie, PA 16501
Terms of Use Privacy Policy