Poetics of Landscape is a late addition to the Bowersock Gallery Exhibition season, a breathtaking, rich, poetic vision created by artists Catherine Nash, and Patricia Kaufman. The show opens Friday, September 15th, 2023 with a reception from 5-7 pm and runs through October 5th, at Bowersock Gallery 373 Commercial Street, Provincetown, MA.
Nash, a resident of the Southwest, is a highly accomplished artist, a true creative, an explorer of arts, who has mastered numerous mediums throughout her decades-long career. She brings all those skills together to create an individual vision with works informed by her studies in Japan, the US, and Scandinavia, along with years spent among Native American friends in the southwestern desert wilderness. Her varied experiences meld together to create the poetics of landscape.
For this series Nash uses Kozo (mulberry bark) paper, preparing the sheet with traditional Konnyaku paste, a tradition she learned when studying paper-making and indigo dyeing on Shikoku Island in Japan. Rolling the dampened paper sheets over varied leaves and branches, she steams and boils them in a dye bath, which prints the leaves on the paper. Gradations of waterproof inks as well as Prismacolor pencils and watercolor over the botanical prints, make the images permanent. The atmospheric qualities achieved create lyrical, ethereal landscapes. Though drawing from techniques learned during her Japanese studies, the series' subject references the extensive time spent on Cape Cod, the land, and waters of some of her ancestors, that to this day still, courses through her bones. The series draws from her visits to the Cape's kettle ponds, visited during all seasons, times of day - rain, fog, and sun. The end results yield mysterious, dreamlike images.
As a lifelong working artist, Patricia Kaufman has been with Bowersock Gallery since its inception, almost 20 years now, and watching her artwork morph and grow continues to be a gift. The new series displayed for this show has a deeply cosmic feel that takes the imagination to unknown worlds. Kaufman has been known over the many decades for her ethereal scenes, bright rich palette, and layered texture. Her process is a dogged and meticulous one, as she scrapes and layers utilizing a variety of brushstrokes, until she is satisfied the story she wants to tell is fleshed out. Collectors from all over the world are privy to the mastery of this wonderful artist who continues to wow and inspire.
Both Catherine and Patricia are viewed as the artists' artist and the reasons are evident in this extraordinary exhibit. They've both mastered tools as they bring their unique visions to life.
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