Sensuous by Nature

Carol Bishop calls her current exhibition at Woodbury University “les jardins particulairs,” inspired by visits to parks and gardens in Europe and the United States, from the Tuileries to Gramercy Park. Naturally, our appetite of expectations is whetted for landscape pieces of no uncertain nature-loving beauty--maybe even out-and-out prettiness.

What we find, instead, is an evocative series of artworks, in thick waxy buildups of encaustic, along with a set of drawings, that are anything but particular. Abstract at the core, suggestive on the surface, Bishop’s art here amounts to a meditation on the secret, contemplative life of gardens rather than the literal representation thereof. Like the controlled, manicured appearance of a well-tended garden, Bishop’s show is laid out in a deliberately measured, evenly paced manner. Thirty-two square, encaustic paintings of the same size and structural language are placed on the walls around the gallery.

In each, a milky, murky whitish “frame” surrounds a darker central image, which we instinctively view as the main event within the composition. A similar structure, of an enclosed, framed square, returns in a bank of 72 smaller drawings on one wall.

But, within this program of apparent sameness, on close scrutiny, is endless variation. Visual activity is bubbling below the surface, with veins and undercoats preventing anything like flatness of color.

Nature herself isn’t as far away as first impressions suggest. Hints and glimmers of plant life, of leaves and bark and the surreal color skeins of flower petals, can be detected. The very sensuous texture of the encaustic, laid generously on wood supports, could be viewed as a corollary to the tactile sensuality of gardens.

With this work, Bishop effectively, and discreetly, explores the paradoxical nature of gardens, those human-ordered celebrations of nature.

*

BE THERE

Carol Bishop, “les jardins particulairs,” through Feb. 28 at Woodbury University Art Gallery, 7500 Glenoaks Blvd. in Burbank. Gallery hours: Wed.-Fri., 12:30-5 p.m., or by appointment (818) 767-0888, Ext. 320.