Be Still; Distill unites local and nationally known photographers, painters and mixed media artists whose work, through varying mediums, connect us to the essence of nature. View the exhibition online.
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When approaching Shari Brownfield Fine Art’s log cabin on Glenwood Street one is drawn to the stillness the artworks provoke, while paradoxically sensing the fleeting moments of our world. In Be Still; Distill each of the artists’ varying approaches to nature reveal its essence, making history the present and creating a connection to the unseen.
The title of the exhibition, Be Still; Distill, echoes Georgia O'Keefe’s sentiments that, “Nothing is less real than realism. Details are confusing. It is only by selection, by elimination, by emphasis, that we get at the real meaning of things.” Each of the six artists - Kate Breakey, Robert Buelteman, Pamela Gibson, Alan Magee, Anne Muller, and Richard Painter - is inspired to capture nature in its purest form. Through their individual processes they make thoughtful edits to distill the real, thus becoming unreal.
Australian born Kate Breakey’s luminous, modern day 'orotones’ are showcased across a 14 foot, 19-piece salon hung gallery wall. The constellation of imagery pays homage to the artist’s visits to natural history museums with her father. Her black and white photography focuses on natural elements -flowers, animals, insects and trees - coupled with exquisite hand painting and 24K gold leaf. These works come on the heels of Breakey’s solo exhibition at the Grace Museum in Texas.
“As O’Keefe articulates, thanks to the artists’ ability to literally ‘be still and distill,’ they encourage us to question what we are seeing and provide timelessness to a short-lived moment,” explains Brownfield.
Unlike Breakey’s streamlined detail, Alan Magee’s hyper real pointillist paintings deliver what appear to include every possible detail, thus tricking us into a false moment of actuality. Magee’s widely celebrated trompe l’oeil paintings of stones, illustrated with extreme clarity, ultimately make the viewer question reality. With timeless subject matter the artist provokes the viewer’s senses to feel a surface with our eyes and to sense the object’s essence.
The 34 artworks in the exhibit also includes Richard Painter’s Big Grass; a massive charred wood and pastel triptych, which may look familiar to those who have traveled through the Jackson Hole Airport, where a major work by the artist hangs. Jackson Hole painter Pamela Gibson’s molten beeswax paintings, which combine hints of vibrant pigment and found objects, reveal the artist’s distillation of her senses of the landscape. Robert Buelteman’s ‘camera-less’ photographs of plant life, combined with 80,000 volts of electricity, uncover an unseen spirit of the natural world. To complete the show, photo emulsion transfers by local artist Anne Muller are a thoughtful representation of the classic still life, featuring soft glimmering reflections of the artist’s peony photographs warmed by acrylic paint.