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T aintings Ca Ansn-S
The ShApe of ColorStawby Bank and Mngan Isand
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T itigs C as-S
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Blues and Reds Behind the Chase House, oil on canvas, 30 x 30 in.
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The STraWBery BanKe SerIeSa Sm i Ssit
pivigd Mmts
The museum village o Strawbery Banke has provided me
with a wonderul, visual opportunity to explore my primary
subject, which is the way color shapes pictorial light andspace. In these paintings, color captures and denes the
privileged moments during the day when light makes
its appearance and disappearance, when shadows are at
their longest and light is most clearly directional. These
brie but special moments give expression to a world both
at rest and in transition.1
Carol Aronson-Shore
Still. Quiet. Frozen color. Sun rise or sunset; dawn or dusk;season by season. Whether the subject is a building stilllie wrapped in color or a biting, rozen landscape, Strawbery
Banke Museum is captured repeatedly and painstakingly by
Carol Aronson-Shore. As one who spends a great deal o time on the Strawbery Banke Museum
campus, I am repeatedly struck by the manner in which Aronson-Shore captures light and
mood with what appears to be such subtlety and unhurried ease. For example, Blues and Reds
Behind the Chase House has an autumnal glow skillully depicted in the window refection at
Rider-Wood House; red leaves carpet the grass under a twilight sky, and the majestic tree itsel
has a deep, almost velvety quality to it. Using classic techniques, the artist has oreshortened
the perspective by using the distant house to terminate the view, leaving the visitor constrained
on either side by visual roadblockslet to behold the light making its appearance in the long
shadows and to savor the trees majesty. (For comparison, see Chase House Red Tree with Red
Refections, gouache on paper, 2010.)
The artist skillullyalmost surreptitiouslydraws the observer into these dazzling color-drenched canvases. Upon arrival, however, Aronson-Shore has established the path she would
Chase House Red Tree with Red Refections, gouache on
paper, 7 x 7 in.
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Snow Shadows and Shrubs Behind the Sherburne House , oil on canvas, 18 x 24 in.
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Fall Color at Strawbery Banke, oil on canvas, 24 x 42 in.
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Snow Behind the Goodwin Mansion, oil on canvas, 16 x 20 in.
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VISIonS TranSforMeDrct pitigs b C as-S
We see in every work o gurative art the desire, objectively to represent beauty, solely throughorm and color, in mutually balanced relations, and, at the same time, an attempt to express
that which these orms, colors, and relations arouse in us.
Piet Mondrian, Plastic Art and Pure Plastic Art, 1937
Ablank neutral surace. An array o pigments. These are the raw materials o any painting,whether abstract or gurative. The eternal mystery and magic, the seeming sleight ohand: how is it possible that so much can be communicated through such basic means? In the
passage above, Mondrian attempted to make a case or pure plastic art, which he believed
to be superior to gurative art because it bypassed the subjectivity o the individual artist, and
was thus more universal. Later on in the same essay, he identied an important truth: that all
nongurative art was drawn rom the surrounding reality, and that all gurative art was basedon the dynamic rhythm o inherent ormal relations.
Carol Aronson-Shores latest series o paintings o Strawbery Banke in Portsmouth provides
a wonderul example o the undamentally abstract nature o gurative art. On the one hand,
no one would mistake the works or nonreerential compositions o orm, shapes, and color.
They appear to be literal representations o actual places under specic conditions o light,
and as such they are incontrovertibly realistic, gurative paintings. Yet they are constructed
through close attention to abstract principles o design and color, which the artist manipulates
with incredible skill and deliberate control. Paradoxically, these abstract elements are the
means through which Aronson-Shore suggests a vivid, palpable, glowing, evocation othe real world.
Starting rom the details o the particular, the artist pursues her lielong passion or ndingthe visual vehicle or depicting the interrelationship o structure, color, and light. In so doing,
she breaks rom what she describes as the tyranny o the real to create tightly constructed,
nely tuned, dynamic symphonies o color. The title o the exhibit, The Shape o Color, refects
Aronson-Shores commitment to the primacy o the ormal aspects o her work. But in contrast
to Mondrians assertion that in gurative art, subject matter, i.e., the personal, gets in the way
o eective visual communication, in Aronson-Shores work the buildings o Strawbery Banke
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Harbor Boats, oil on canvas, 16 x 20 in.
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Beach View o Island Inn, oil on canvas, 16 x 20 in.
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InDex
31
35
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13
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34
25
10
16
33
29
18
28
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2
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20
9
5
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Approaching Manana Island, oil on canvas, 18 x 24 in. 2007
Beach View o Island Inn, oil on canvas, 16 x 20 in. 2007
Blues and Reds Behind the Chase House, oil on canvas, 30 x 30 in. 2010
Chase House Red Tree with Red Refections, gouache on paper, 7 x 7 in. 2010
Dock Houses and Manana, oil on canvas, 20 x 24 in. 2007
Early Morning Light at the End o Horse Lane, oil on canvas, 30 x 30 in. 2009
Fall Color at Strawbery Banke, oil on canvas, 24 x 42 in. 2008Fresh Snowall at the Peacock House, oil on canvas, 14 x 18 in. 2010
Groceries at Strawbery Banke, oil on canvas, 12 x 24 in. 2009
Harbor Boats, oil on canvas, 16 x 20 in. 2007
Late Light Panorama in Fall, oil on canvas, 24 x 42 in. 2009
Light and Shadow Rythms in Late Fall, oil on canvas, 14 x 18 in. 2010
Long Shadows on the Lowd House, gouache on paper, 6 x 11 in. 2009
Monehgan Island Red Roo Looking to Sea, gouache on paper, 6 x 6 in. 2009
Monhegan Island Village Views, gouache on paper, 6 x 6 in. 2009
Morning Tree Shadows Behind the Yeaton-Walsh House, oil on canvas, 30 x 30 in. 2010
Museum Hill and Bell, oil on canvas, 20 x 24 in. 2007
Museum Window at Dusk, oil on canvas, 20 x 24 in. 2007
Red Tree at the Chase House, oil on canvas, 18 x 24 in. 2009
Signs at Strawbery Banke: Pottery and The Banks Gallery, oil on canvas, 16 x 20 in. 2009
Snow Behind the Goodwin Mansion, oil on canvas, 16 x 20 in. 2010
Snow Shadows and Shrubs Behind the Sherburne House, oil on canvas, 18 x 24 in. 2010
Spring Colors at Strawbery Banke, oil on canvas, 16 x 20 in. 2010
Strawbery Banke House in Fall, gouache on paper, 5 x 6 in, 2010
Strawbery Banke Houses on Atkinson Street, oil on canvas, 14 x 18 in. 2010
Wyeth House at Dusk II, oil on canvas, 20 x 24 in. 2007
Yellow House at Strawbery Banke, oil on canvas, 14 x 18 in., 2008
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