Lawn Chairs and Garden Benches

July 2 – August 2

It’s the end of the day and you head for your Adirondack, your wicker, or your folding aluminum. Have a nibble; have a drink; put your feet up. BAC artists grab summer and hold it tight.

Ken Brookner, Megan Drew, Raymond Gendreau, Kari Bergstrom MacKenzie, Gennielynn Martin, Mary McInnis, Elizabeth Moga, Pierr Morgan, Diane Walker.  Garth Edwards, Stephen Rock, Kristin Tollefson, Jerry Zygar. 

Mary McInnis often reminds us that she's not trying to be deep: For the trilogy, “Up”, “Up And”, and “Away”, I think it started with trying to take a simple subject and having fun with it and trying something different and amusing and silly.  . . . There are no hidden meanings except to say that life can be beautiful and fun.  Sounds deep and wise to us.

Megan Drew responded to our invitation with enthusiasm. She writes, I have a thing for chairs.  Just ask my husband.  We have far too many of them crowded, all mixed and unmatched, around our dining room table.  And on our soggy Northwest deck, there are four gray Adirondack chairs that stare hopefully to the North, awaiting visitors and sunshine.  To me, chairs represent the opportunity to stop, reflect and BE in the company of friends and family.  All good things!

When I travel, I love to find a special spot to sit and think, journal, sketch and listen to what my heart wants to paint next.  The paintings I’ve created for this show all represent such out door perches and moments in Cape Cod, Ireland and Arizona.

Pierr Morgan's new work combines wit and an ingenious technique. Pierr explains, I like to start a painting at its end and work backwards. I come up with a title first, decide on the size of the frame and the color and opening area of its mat, select a color palette to match these, draw out the image on the paper surface, and paint. The pieces in this show were inspired by serious word play with its theme. Once “Thoreau Pillow” popped from my pen, images leaped to mind like was leafing through a catalog. I took notes! The “ink resist” technique I use is also done backwards. Details and patterns are painted first with gouache (“gwosh” - an opaque watercolor like tempera or poster paint), then the general areas, all the while leaving the white of the paper blank (Arches 140lb cold press) wherever black or a black line is desired. When the gouache is dry I paint waterproof ink over the foreground and then wash the whole painting off under running water. The paint dissolves revealing its details and leaving a nice stain, and pushes the ink off itself in dry flecks. The ink stays put wherever it hit the paper first or where the paint was thin. I like the earthy look and the surprise element of this technique. It encourages me to be impulsive and loose - a little out of control.

We will also show artist-made garden benches. Birgit Josenhans's artist statement shows the artist and the craftsman at work simultaneously: The wood for the top is locally salvaged Black Locust. I chose it because of its wild figure and interesting cracks that I love to integrate into the design. Black Locust is a very robust wood, commonly used for fence posts because of its rot resistance and therefore very suitable for an outdoor bench. To mark, follow and play with interesting lines in the plank, I used small branches and stems from the willow tree next to our shop. To accent and repair cracks and holes in the plank and  build a functional seat, I used marine epoxy. Its clarity allows light to come through the cracks without compromising stability. I shaped the top and carved lines to represent  the roughness of the bark. The seat is oiled and smooth and should weather beautifully into a silvery grey.

And then there's Stephen Rock's Dadaist's Garden Bench. But will we really see it? Stephen writes, It is an exact replica of the fabled courting bench from the Surrealists' Club of the 1940s. It was last noted to be seen in the garden of imagination at their final meeting in Barcelona. Although the original was never photographed, reliable research confirms that this would have been the bench had any of this existed.

Right.

IMAGES:

Mary McInnis, Up And, 2010. Acrylic on paper. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Megan Drew, New Direction, 2010. Pastel. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Pierr Morgan, Lawn Chair with Thoreau Pillow, 2010. Ink and gouache on paper. Photo courtesy of the artist.