What’s New
Northeast Ohio artists shine at the Butler Institute of American Art
by Steven Litt, The Plain Dealer
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The National Midyear exhibition at the Butler Institute of Art is a classic exercise in artistic comfort food.
It’s a juried, annual exhibition that draws entries from all fifty states and that attracts artists of a conservative bent, working in traditional media with traditional subjects.
That’s just as true today of the 77th version of the show, now on view at the Butler through Sunday, Aug. 18, as it has been in the past.
This year’s Midyear won’t challenge, thrill or disorient, but it will give pleasure. And that latter point is especially true of the entries from Northeast Ohio. For the most part, they consist of new works by some of the region’s best artists.
Particularly outstanding are a pair of still lifes by Carol Stewart of Bexley, which evoke a kind of mesmerizing, low-grade ecstasy of being surrounded by familiar objects. She paints glassware and crockery on tables that seem to have been tilted up slightly toward the viewer, emphasizing the flatness of the picture plane.
Review of Solo Exhibition at Sherry Leedy Gallery, Kansas City, June 15, 2011
Cottage Painting With Lure
Everything is illuminated in lively Carol Stewart exhibit, ‘Light and Form’
By NICK MALEWSKI – Special to The Star
Canada-born, St. Louis-based artist Carol Stewart has long focused her attention on arrangements of flowers, fruit and glassware.
In a cheerful exhibit at Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art titled “Light and Form,” 14 paintings display the technical bravura with which Stewart handles her subjects. Composed of thick globs of oil paint and thin layers of glazing, most of the paintings deftly capture the effects of light on objects painstakingly posed in her studio.
“Blue Painting,” one of Stewart’s biggest and most ambitious works, shows oranges, pomegranates, pitchers and vases under a diffuse light. Rendered against a bluish ground, the items form a constellation of luscious hues. Their reflections in a lustrous tabletop are painted in beautifully muted tones.
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Among the strongest pieces are the works depicting window treatments, which the artist used to achieve specific lighting.
“Light in the Studio” features drapery that softens sunlight shining through divided windowpanes. The drapery also acts as a neutral backdrop for red, orange and yellow flowers in pitchers.
“Cottage Painting With Lure” pictures a bamboo shade that lets the yellowish light of late afternoon seep in. The horizontal lines of the shade also counterbalance the vertical lines of objects on a table.
Stewart sometimes gives a nod to painters of the past by painting their works into her works. Although this approach may be amusing, where Stewart’s oeuvre is concerned, it seems like a fleeting detour rather than an avenue for serious exploration.
“Still Life With Matisse” presents Stewart’s depiction of “The Red Studio,” a Matisse painting she saw at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In Stewart’s crowded oil on canvas, the Matisse is tucked behind pitchers and vases gathered on a red tabletop.
“Still Life With Diebenkorn” seamlessly incorporates an illustration of an early landscape by Richard Diebenkorn into an arrangement of astonishingly reflective and transparent vessels. A silver goblet, a tin can and some jars appear to share space with Bay Area scenery.
Stewart has said, “I always paint from life.” However, this exhibit includes a few paintings based on a series of photographs she took in San Francisco. These colorful new works, focused solely on hanging Chinese lanterns, stand in stark contrast with the rest of the show.
Rather than suggesting a single, natural light source, they suggest numerous, artificial light sources. In “Chinese Lanterns I,” a profusion of illuminated lanterns leaves precious little room for interplay between light and dark.
Spatial depth is rendered shallow. Colors flatten out on the surface of the paper more than they model objects in the round.
Stewart also has said, “I search for the place in painting that exists between the representational and the abstract.”
The lantern paintings tip the scale in favor of the latter.
“The Botanical Still Life Paintings of Carol Stewart” article by Kayleigh Osness
“Sunflowers and Quince” Oil, 40” x 54” 2009
Original art undoubtedly beautifies a home or office by enriching one’s physical surroundings, cultivating conversations and building personal tastes. For these reasons, the number of art collectors in Canada is on the rise. The advantage of collecting fine art is the intrinsic value it holds combined with its market value. Art falls under the category of an alternative investment (along with wine, jewelry and classic cars) and savvy investors have been paying attention.
“The major advantage of collecting art is that you can enjoy the piece as its value increases,” says Ian Loch, director of Loch Gallery in Calgary, who represents Carol Stewart, a senior Canadian artist. “Carol is definitely an artist to watch for. Her work reflects a skillful and emotionally charged interpretation of the still life subject.”
Over the past 30 years, Carol Stewart has exhibited in galleries throughout North America in Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, St. Louis, San Antonio and Chicago in 25 solo shows and 19 group shows. Her still life paintings are characterized by a sophisticated play of colour and light applied in a punchy, painterly style. Stewart views art collectors as cultural ambassadors, “Original artwork has a spirit that is lacking in reproductions. You can feel the hand of the artist in it.”
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Carol Stewart’s Studio, St. Louis, MO
“Painting is infinitely satisfying for me,” says the artist from her botanically blessed studio in St. Louis, Missouri, where she currently resides. “I had wonderful art teachers in high school in Montreal and attended art school before doing my BFA at Queen’s University in Kingston,” the artist tells me as she notes her MFA at Fontbonne University is nearly complete. “I am learning better how to get to that special place between the conscious and unconscious working mind where the magic happens,” says Stewart who admires historical artists Bonnard, Vuillard, Matisse, and contemporary artists David Hockney, Tony Scherman, and Gerhard Richter.
Always painting from life, Stewart interprets flora, fruit, fabrics and glass objects as explosive fields of colour. Her pieces convey a network of patterning and mark making that create texture and energy. As one’s gaze is anchored on a piece, a unified composition emerges while specific elements emerge. Subsequently, depth is established, objects are weighted through their shadows and a subtle balance is expressed through reflections of light that dance across the surface.
“I take my inspiration from museums and gardens in the places I’ve lived such as England, Ontario and B.C. It is especially my own garden that I love. It has a heart and soul.”
Carol Stewart’s work is original in its methods. By breaking down the lines and injecting the forms with movement, she experiments between realism and abstraction. “I work to make movement a part of my still life painting. The layering of paint can resemble an airy feel of a watercolour but is combined with the depth and richness of oil paint.”
Carol Stewart’s works can be found in private and corporate collection in Canada, the United States and the U.K. In 2008, she won the Honors Award at Art St. Louis. In Canada, she is represented by Loch Gallery at in Toronto, Calgary and Winnipeg at www.lochgallery.com. August 15, 2009
Studio Party Oil, 40” x 48” 2008
Blue Notes, 2009 Oil, 52” x 30” 2009
Studio Light Oil, 29.5” x 40.5” 2009
