July's Art: Phebe Mott

Last Friday night was a gorgeous Burlington evening! Sunny with a refreshing breeze in the air (much needed after the humidity and rain we have suffered through). Throughout our tour we saw some amazing art work, from the art of Sudanese refugees resettled in Vermont to encaustic paintings, works in which the artist uses waxes and oil paints to Vogue Magazine worthy jewelry to art for the purposes of ecovention....keep visiting this page to find out more about the art...and what I thought about it.



I won't leave you hanging though....I'll start off with the work I saw at the first gallery we visited: the Amy E. Tarrant Gallery at the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts. "Summer Serendipity" by Phebe Mott opened there last night. Mott uses carefully rendered strokes of acrylic paint to potray intimate moments in everyday life. Here scenes of summer moments grace the walls and jump out of the viewer. The colors are vibrant and deep, the canvases large. As the viewer moves closer toward the painting, she can fully admire Mott's brushwork: up close one can see the subtle layering of colors, a large space of cobalt blue reveals lavendars, pinks, even oranges, peeking out from underneathe. Also apparent is the texturing on the canvases. In one seascape scene it appears as though Mott has placed sea salt or sand on parts of the canvas then painted over that. In another it seems as though the canvas has been cut or altered prior to painting. She uses these elements to communicate aspects of the environment in a tactile way. Sand crystallizes, waves move. I hope you can see those details in the photos I've taken...



Mott's work conveys the theme of intimate moments. She chooses not to potray the faces of her human subjects lending nicely to the theme of universality - these could be scenes fron anyone'e life. In fact a painting of three blonde women sitting on a wicker sofa on a porch immediately reminded me of my two younger sisters and me, chatting away on a summer evening. As the artist herself says, "I feel drawn to the flashes of life that might not get a lot of attention...There are moments that we don't think about and I like to think that I'm giving them some importance." The show runs through September 2. You can find out more about Mott at www.phebemott.com.