New Work by Carlyle Wolfe and Contain and Deliver Ceramics Group Show
New work by Carlyle Wolfe is on display at Southside Gallery with Contain and Deliver, a group show organized by Bayard Morgan and Jane Hart Gwin Morgan. The group show also includes work by Ky Johnston and Ashley Chavis. Next week, Mary Warner will write about Contain and Deliver.
In Her Element: Carlye Wofle
Carlyle Wolfe's eyes twinkle when you talk to her about her work. The corners of her lips turn up as she eloquently describes it, clearly pleased with her paintings and works on paper on display at Southside Gallery. If you know Wolfe, then this show will seem familiar, but there are some noticeable differences. Some of Wolfe's new paintings are larger than usual - seven feet wide to be exact - and her works on paper are "scrappier," a term Wolfe uses to explain their fringed, pieced together appearance.
Carlye Wolfe, a Canton native who resides in Oxford, recreates worlds that often exist just beyond our fingertips. Like Demeter, she brings us the seasons to appreciate and revel in their beauty. I sat down with the artist to talk about her latest paintings and works on paper:
For someone who has never seen your work before, how would you describe it?
My work is a description of the landscape. I get the specific detail from drawing, but I try to balance that specificity and precision with fluidity. In nature there is the order and the chaos or the law and the spirit. My attitude towards nature is reverent. I respect it.
How do you put color to work for you?
With this body of work, color relationships are important. In my works on paper, I sew two different colors alongside each other so that they read as one color. In my paintings, I achieve this by putting lines or layers next to each other, such as in Shadows.
Another relationship that interests me is suspending color. I like to do this with complementary colors that if mixed together would make brown. If you just suspend these colors in each other, they do something very different. I witnessed this in nature in the base of a pink zinnia going into its green stem. I like to see what is going on in nature and work in a similar way.
Over the years your style has changed very little. Can you talk about why that is?
I actually see a lot of changes, but they are subtle. I think that my work is cumulative. While nature is my subject, I also try to create work in a way that is kind of like nature in that it grows. I almost think of my body of work as the same landscape, but one that is getting more lush. I didn't plan it that way. It naturally happened as I kept adding forms into it. There is consistency; however, I'm still using some of the original forms.
What are some of the forms that regularly appear in your work and which of them are special to you right now?
The forms originate from silhouettes that I make from line drawings of plants I observe in nature. The silhouettes started with zinnias and then continued with oak leaves. I never really retire any shapes. I had one that was a house plant. It wasn't a native plant, so it didn't fit into the rest of the forms naturally. It's the only shape I don't use very often. While I've done successful paintings with it, it doesn't blend into the landscape.
One new form that is debuting in this show is Lily of the Valley drawn from Vasser Bishop's house. With this group of drawings, I started to focus on the way that things grow. I included the grass-like plants that grew between the clusters of flowers.
You worked on these paintings during the winter. What is it like working on a painting that is so lush and green when it is gray outside?
When it's green outside, you want to be picking plants and drawing them. I love the winter landscape, but I don't sit outside to draw it because it's uncomfortable. I cut branches and bring them indoors.
What time of day do these paintings depict?
I think a lot of them are morning. The ones that are light suggest the morning light, which is kind of white and soft, and the lush ones are during the day. In the case of Shallibars, the color comes from deep in the woods on day I was riding a horse for which I named the painting. It's one of three paintings that reference a very specific color event, which is something new in my work. In the past, my color observation has been more general.
How do you name your work?
In the big picture, I like to think of them as having one family name. I've had a whole group of paintings that were zinnias, another of leaves, and a series called the "Little House" [where Wolfe resides near Rowan Oak] that all had the same name. I've been living in the Little House for five years, and if I were to draw a circle around that family of work it would include this latest work. For this show, I have started naming paintings by the most recognizable forms in the work.
Why do you focus on branches and flowers?
The work has a lot to do with my relationship with nature and my awareness of the natural world and appreciation of what is right there. It is immediate, so most of what appears in my work is from my yard, neighborhood, or places I spend a lot of time. For example, my parents' yard has been a big influence. They have windows in their living and dining rooms that are the same proportion as one of my painting sizes and I didn't know it. I liked the proportions, and then later realized that they were the same. Through those windows you see diffusing lights, shadows, leafy forms, and oak trees. It was all right there.
For more information call (662) 234-9090.
| 
