Art Review: ‘California Landscapes and Still Life’ exhibit invites contemplative art viewing
Art museum guards say that the average art viewer spends two or three seconds looking at a given piece. A new show called “External and Contemplative: California Landscapes and Still Life” forces the issue: Any viewer who races through it will have no time to drink in the layers of effort, form a surface opinion of the piece, and try to discern the artist’s meaning and motives.
“External and Contemplative,” at the American Legacy Fine Arts Gallery in Pasadena through Nov. 21, is largely made up of paintings and a few sculptures that have something beyond superficial representation.
Under the aegis of the California Art Club, the show’s presentation is customarily well-considered and presented. “Veiled Moon” by Jennifer Moses revels in a sublimely modulated open sky. Daniel Pinkham’s lush tree scene, “Rhythm,” is a symphony of temperatures. Bela Bacsi’s Italian marble figure, “Poised,” celebrates a full feminine figure in its sumptuous volumes. Jove Wang’s portraits of provincial Chinese show a variety of deft brushwork techniques. The loose brushwork and multi-color impasto on Peter Adams’ “El Prieto Falls” has the vibrancy that an alla prima oil can achieve.
Painter Eric Merrell gave an informative talk at the show’s opening that he called “Transcending the Literal.” He’s a 37-year old Art Center College of Design graduate with a deep affinity for the outdoors — especially the desert — as subject matter. He studied privately with Pasadena plein air colorist Pinkham and California Art Club president Adams. The small, attentive audience was given a presentation on Merrell’s paintings, artistic concerns and modus operandi.
He works in two ways: sketching on location and taking notes on the weather conditions and his own feelings — later to flesh out his ideas in a studio. He also paints out in the open. “I came across this quote from Cezanne,” Merrell began, “and it really hit home for me: ‘Painting is not copying the object, it is realizing one’s sensations.’ I’m always trying to find my connections to the object and the subject.”
He’s got one foot in traditional Impressionism and another in contemporary Expressionism. While his work is representational, it’s clearly interpretive. Merrell has achieved a signature feel, without resorting to a look with a decal superficiality. He paints in relatively soft focus, and while his subject matter has vague foreground detail, the shapes and accents come together as a whole beautifully.
That last point may not sound like much but consider that a fair number of representational artists are not able to make compelling pictures. They may be able to copy objects, reproduce photographs with a brush or render down to the smallest detail. But that doesn’t mean they can come up with an interesting composition — let alone intimate a narrative. Merrell’s canvases say all you need to know in terms of detail, without being literal. “The Western Sky” shimmers with the setting sun in Joshua Tree National Park shining through the leaves of desert palms. Scattered bright accents light the Eagle Rock foreground of “Christmas Eve,” viewed through a wicket of night-darkened palm trees, with an indigo hill range behind it.
Merrell offered that he likes many colors (“a pretty strong palette”) to work with. “That way,” he pointed out, “you can mix down to mute but you can also get pretty vibrant.” Asked whether he likes to cover his canvases with a neutral tone rather than fight the high value of a whitened surface, he answered: “I prefer a white canvas; you can get a little more translucency with it.”
“I spend more time mixing colors than I actually do painting.”
Merrell acknowledges the duality of being a working artist. “You have to be the child and the adult at the same time,” he says. “You’re running a business but you’re also expressing the sensations and painting them.”
What: “The External and the Contemplative: California Landscapes and Still Life”
Where: American Legacy Fine Arts Gallery, 949 Linda Vista Dr., Pasadena
When: Through Nov. 21. Tuesday through Saturday, by appointment only.
Contact: (626) 577-7733, info@americanlegacyfinearts.com
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KIRK SILSBEE writes about jazz and culture for Marquee.