PAINTINGS OF THE ISLES OF SHOALS BY CHRISTOPHER VOLPE

Transcription

1 PAINTINGS OF THE ISLES OF SHOALS BY CHRISTOPHER VOLPE DISCOVER PORTSMOUTH CENTER, AUGUST 2012

2 PAINTING THE SHOALS It is a rocky, windswept archipelago about six miles off the coast of Maine and New Hampshire: Rhythmic surf, tenacious sea-roses, bleached and battered stone. The paintings in this exhibition aim to capture the brilliance and desolation of the islands stark, light-drenched coasts and weathered landmarks with minimalistic design, spontaneous color harmonies, and freely handled brush and knife work. Never far from mind, nineteenth-century American Impressionist Childe Hassam created numerous justly famous oil paintings of the Isles of Shoals. For me, the challenge of painting the shoals today was to forget Hassam's work but to remember his achievement and to take him at his word: "Subjects suggest to me a color scheme and I just paint." "An artist should paint his own time and treat nature as he feels it," Hassam said, "not repeat the same stupidities of his predecessors." The idea, I think, is that, lived courageously, the act of painting sometimes leads to moments of fuller being. That s what I was really chasing on the Shoals. My method on the Shoals was to aim for a completed painting or a sketch I could flesh out in the studio. Several of the works in this show evolved as improvisations based on the initial paintings, sketches, memories, and reference photos from the site. Many of the paintings titles refer to passages from Celia Thaxter s classic Among the Isles of Shoals, published by James R. Osgood & Co. in 1873.

3 THE MUSIC OF THE WAVES Oil on Birch Panel, 18x24 $2,600 Every little cove and inlet is filled with the music of the waves, and their life, light, color, and sparkle.

4 CRASHING WAVE Oil on linen, 16 x 20 inches $1,995

5 INTERVAL Oil on canvas panel, 8x10 inches $650

6 COMPOSITION IN ROSE For the world is like a new-blown rose, and in the heart of it he stands, with only the caressing music of the water to break the utter silence The sea is rosy, and the sky delicious color that touches so tenderly the bare, bleak rocks Oil on mounted linen, 5x7 inches $375

7 A STRANGE BEAUTY But the very wildness and desolation reveal a strange beauty. Oil on canvas, 6 x 6 $450

8 GOSPORT DUSK Oil on wood panel, 4x7 inches $425

9 SOUTH LEDGES, STAR ISLAND Oil on canvas, 9x12 inches $725

10 COTTAGE ON STAR ISLAND COVE, ISLES OF SHOALS Star Island Cove with its tumble-down fish-houses, and ancient cottages with low, shelving roofs, and porches covered with the golden lichen that so loves to embroider old weather-worn wood. Oil on linen, 8x10 inches $650

11 . CHAPEL NOCTURNE Oil on linen, 8x10 inches $650

12 TRAP DIKE, STAR ISLAND Oil on wood panel, 7x7 inches $485

13 LOVELIER THAN SKY OR SEA the delicious color that touches so tenderly the bare, bleak rocks. These are lovelier than sky or sea, or distant sails, or graceful gulls wings reddened with the dawn. Oil on canvas panel, 8 x 10 $650

14 ISLES OF THE BLEST Oil on Panel, 20x20 inches $2,100

15 THE OCEAN FROM STAR ISLAND, ISLES OF SHOALS Oil on linen, 24x30 inches $2,600

16 NOTHING BUT PEACE IN THE SWEET AIR Nothing takes color so beautifully as the bleached granite.there is no dust, no noise, nothing but peace in the sweet air and on the quiet sea. Oil on canvas, 11 x 14 inches $785

17 ADDITIONAL PAINTINGS NOT ON EXHIBIT AT THE DISCOVER PORTSMOUTH CENTER The following paintings were created alongside the others in the series. However, they are not part of the Portsmouth Historical Society s exhibition at the Discover Portsmouth Center. Contact Kennedy Gallery in Portsmouth (603) to view these paintings. AFTERNOON SKY, ISLES OF SHOALS Oil on canvas, 9x12 inches $725

18 COTTAGES ON STAR ISLAND Oil on linen, 8x10 inches $625

19 SPRING GRASS, STAR ISLAND I remember in the spring kneeling on the ground to seek the first blades of grass that pricked through the soil, bringing them into the house to study and wonder over. Better than a shop full of toys they were to me! Whence came their color? How did they draw their sweet, refreshing tint from the brown earth, or the limpid air, or the white light? Oil on canvas, 16x20 inches $1,500

20 ROCKY INLET, ISLES OF SHOALS Oil on canvas, 11 x 14 inches $785

21 COVE RIDGE, ISLES OF SHOALS Mosaic of stone and shell and sea-wrack, tangles of kelp and driftwood, - a mass of warm neutral tints, - with brown, green, and crimson mosses, and a few golden snailshells lying on the many-tinted gravel, where the indolent ripples lapse in delicious murmurs. Oil on linen, 8x10 inches $650 SOLD

22 MISS UNDERHILL S CHAIR Oil on wood panel, 11x14 inches $875 SOLD