Painting Georgia O’Keeffe Country
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| Three of the paintings in Lydia Bauman, Looking for Georgia - Painting Georgia O’Keeffe Country - the central view is of the Ghost Ranch landscape |
Yesterday morning I saw one of the most impressive solo exhibitions in the Mall Galleries that I've seen to date. It has large and small landscapes which are visually stunning, has a big theme and a story behind it and the painting is splendid.
I wish more people were inspired by an exhibition about an artist and take themselves off to find the countryside where a painter painted and then find the places and spaces and paint them again.
I guess one of the reasons it appeals to me is that I'm an inveterate seeker out of places where people painted. I guess it's something that either appeals to you or it doesn't. For me I learn something about the painter by being able to see what they see - although it doesn't always work out. Trees have a habit of growing in front of views as I found out on my Van Gogh trail in Provence! However back to the exhibition....
Lydia Bauman, Looking for Georgia - Painting Georgia O’Keeffe Country
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| The feature wall - The Road to Mesa Pedenal Triptych |
Lydia Bauman, Looking for Georgia - Painting Georgia O’Keeffe Country is on until Saturday 2nd March 2019 at the Mall Galleries.
I highly recommend a viewing if you can get there - it's very impressive. Indeed it is by far the most impressive exhibition of landscape painting that I've seen in the Mall Galleries after many years of visiting. The big Main Gallery can overwhelm wimpy painting and needs bold painting to draw you down the stairs. Bauman's larger paintings 'read' well from 100 feet away and get better as you get closer!
This is a woman who really knows how to paint big landscapes in an appropriate way - and how to use mixed media to give a 'grounded' and spiritual sense of the landscape. Her colour palette is slightly exaggerated and yet remains true to the place. Her tonal values are spot on so that all the zones in terms of distances and changes in landscape read really well - despite the fact that for many people the New Mexico landscape will be something they've never experienced.
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| The road to iconic landscapes of O'Keeffe Country |
