New paintings, old paint.
Robert Hanlon gives new life to salvaged architectural panels.
Yawl in a Following Sea
The paintings of Essex artist Robert Hanlon will be featured in a solo exhibition at the Firehouse Center for the Arts (Market Square, Newburyport, MA) from September 15 through October 31, 2010 in the Gallery located in the Firehouse lobby. Patrons may view the work during regular Box Office hours Wednesday – Sunday from 12N – 5PM, or until curtain. The public is also invited to meet the artist at a reception to be held Saturday, September 18, 4-6pm, at the Gallery.
The Pink Room
Robert Hanlon is first an artist. Whether he is building furniture for his “day-job” or wielding a paintbrush in front of his easel — the creative force is always present. In fact, the inspiration for his furniture-making is pretty much the same as for his painting. For the past twenty-five years Hanlon has taken cast-off antique panels salvaged from 18th- and 19th-century houses and turned them into unique pieces of furniture at his Essex, MA studio/showroom. When not being reincarnated into tables, cabinets and the like, the architectural panels also provide him with a “jumping-off” point for the work he creates at his easel. Coated with as many as fifteen layers of paint, two-hundred-or-more years of “aging” have provided each piece of wood with a patina that will eventually become the background for Robert’s art. As Robert acquires salvaged panels he meticulously scrapes and sands each one to reveal layers of time, history and color; and in the process he exposes random patterns. It is, he says, the same way he paints on canvas — by adding layer upon layer of pigments and then scraping some of the color away with a razor. “Using these antique panels I find the work half-done: primed, framed and full of suggestions. I paint what I know and love, from memory: the Essex salt marsh, Penobscot Bay, sailboats, trees, the human form” says Hanlon. Hanlon seems to have an intimate relationship with form. Although the images are almost primitive in their simplicity, there is sophistication to be found in the techniques that Hanlon employs to bring us into the worlds he creates on canvas: folds of fabric on a woman’s dress in “The Pink Room” are mimicked in the drape of a curtain, the shape of the woman’s body appears to reverberate from the draped fabric’s folds and the body’s curves undulate; the net effect is that our eye is moving up and down and back and forth in continual, gentle and altogether pleasing motion. There is a naiveté, an honesty, about Hanlon’s work that allows us, the viewers, to reflect more deeply on the emotion being conveyed. In “Yawl in a Following Sea” the central figure seems to look directly at the viewer and in fact seems perturbed that we are there at all, while the three other figures in the boat go on about their business undisturbed by our presence. The effect is that one wants to look a little bit longer at this painting that almost dares us to be voyeuristic. The figure in the painting and the viewer seem to be asking the same questions as two strangers may when eyes lock: not so much “who are you?” because we inherently know our meeting will be too short to garner an introduction, but “what is it you are looking for?” Eerily, the overall effect is that of peering into a looking glass, as the painted figure mirrors our own selves. Be sure to reflect upon all of Hanlon’s images at the Firehouse Gallery.
For more information please contact the Box Office by calling 978/462-7336 or visit online at www.firehouse.org.
Calendar Listing
WHAT: Robert Hanlon: “New Paintings, Old Paint”
WHEN: September 15 – October 31. Reception for the artist Sat, Sep 18, 4 – 6pm
WHERE: Firehouse Center for the Arts, Market Square, Newburyport, MA
TICKETS: This event is free and open to the public. For more info please call the Box Office at 978/462-7336 or visit online at www.firehouse.org)
