Parson's Pines
Fine Arts: Must-see exhibit at Rider
By: Janet Purcell | For The Times of Trenton
"Still." That's the word that kept rising up in my mind as I viewed the 43 paintings by Allen Fitzpatrick on display in the Rider University Art Gallery.
"Still." There was a silence that permeated the atmosphere in the gallery for me as I quietly moved from one to the next and the next. A kind of quiet reverence? A sense of peace in these tumultuous times?
Yes, there are several still life paintings on display and one would expect that sense of timelessness. Narcissus and daffodils, a single rhododendron bloom in a white bowl, cherries, onions and pears, pear, pears, are beautifully and quietly presented on small-to-medium-size canvases. You feel you could live with one of those paintings on your wall forever.
There's a whole other collection on display, however, in which the artist explores his own inner thoughts, motivations and even his private journey through art. But, you know what? There's a stillness about them too.
Viewing them you seem to be in quiet conversation with Fitzpatrick.
Consider his "Attributes of This Artist- Before Skull Study." In this you see heavy volumes bound with cord tied to a weight. A skull rests on top the books and one dry paintbrush is seen standing on end in a jar nearby.
You move on to "Thinking About Me" and there you see not a skull, but a life mask tied up in red ribbons with a look of wonderment on it's face. Then, a bit further on, you come to "Attributes of the Artist--after" and there you see the book lying open and unbound and six brushes holding bright colors standing in the skull.
Communicate with the artist through his works and you realize it is a quiet conversation.
In other paintings in the exhibit, he leads viewers out through meandering vistas to find the peace he finds in landscape, in clouds, and in the coastal waters of Maine.
In "Great Point Hill," it's almost as if he takes our hands and walks with us along the still (yes, "still") waterway carved through marsh grasses to a broader water body beyond and even to some almost undecipherable structures on a far hillside.
He leads us through quiet landscapes and beach scenes of Maine and Vermont where he spends much of his time painting and just soaking in the atmosphere for later studio works. In his catalog conversation with Professor Harry I. Naar, Fitzpatrick says he prefers plein air painting because it's a challenge to keep studio work fresh even though he does not paint large.
As Chair of the Visual Arts Department of The Lawrenceville School, Fitzpatrick currently teaches painting, drawing and art history. He began at The Lawrenceville School as a photography teacher and told Professor Naar he loved the printing process "because you were really painting with your hands and light in order to manipulate the scene." He adds, "I liked the landscape without people in it then, and I still do today."
In this exhibit, you might see a dwelling on a distant hill as in "Raw Siena," a farmhouse or a barn standing open as in "Big Flat Farms, NY," but you see no small figure off in the distance, no farmer out tending his chores. In "Coming Home," however, if you look very closely you can see the cows doing just what the title says. But they seem almost incidental in this painting where a beautiful skyscape passes over the herd and the distant farm dwellings are portrayed with a very low horizon.
Fitzpatrick's preference for the low horizon view is prevalent in most of his works on display here and it serves well allowing his facile handling of clouds. There's no land at all in his "Cloud Study"--just the clouds--and, again, one that is so low it is just inches from the bottom of the picture plane in "Coastal Maine." Notice, however, that although you are aware of the fact that clouds move across a landscape and have a life of their own, these are not windswept or storm laden. They are peaceful billows--not quite still like Fitzpatrick's fruits and flowers but, with his photographer's eye, he has given us a moment in time.
He does that also in his paintings of trees in Vermont where he presents a sturdy tree standing strong among others "In The Woods" and a stand of birches rising tall while also leaning gracefully into the landscape.
Fitzpatrick tells Naar in the catalog conversation he is drawn to simplicity. You can especially see that in his handing of trees in the landscape. No place do you see leaves specifically outlined. Instead, you see values clearly understood, the play of light against shadow, even more than color. He is adept at portraying the way we see as we walk through a copse of trees---the beauty of light and shadow. Yes, we may focus on a leaf or two, but he chooses to save that kind of thing for his still life paintings where focus is more important than the sweep of beauty he--we--see in the natural world around us.
One can not help but wonder if his early training in and love of photography plays a significant role in his life as a painter--the capture of a moment in time. The stillness.