Two Balls

Although many of my recent paintings use blocks as a focal point in the composition, I also find the space between the blocks fascinating. In life, this space ties everything together, creates tension rooted in both harmony and discord between objects, and is latent with future use - Stella can't wait to fill up the empty floor with more play! On the canvas, this "white" space resonates with emotions for me. It is the space where Stella will grow, the place where physics and morals and civilization will mold her into someone who doesn't play with blocks anymore. It is the place where her greatest victories and defeats are waiting for her.

This work is titled Two Balls (Stack Narrative) oil/canvas, 15" x 30". It is part of a series I've called "stack narratives" because the paintings can be read as stories. Compared to my earlier block paintings, you will find the palette knife is in heavier rotation here. Also, I dispersed light throughout the painting, a choice that toned down the contrasts between light and dark. The result is a calm, meditative space.

Three Towers

One of the subjects I'm exploring through my work is the relationship between memory and learning. I'm intrigued by the "two steps forward, one step back" style of learning and skill acquisition that my daughter often displays. She will finally figure out that blocks don't balance on balls very well and build a grand stack of cubes based on her new knowledge. She will giggle and clap (with histrionic encouragement from me), so proud of her ingenuity...and then the next time I look over at her, she's back to trying to stack a couple of balls! This painting, Three Towers (Block Series), oil/canvas 24" x 24" is my first diptych related to Stella's blocks and was an opportunity to dig deeper into this topic. It is more expressive and "raw" than many of the paintings I've completed in 2008, but I think the more physical, emotional style is fitting when considering the inspiration is a young toddler!

Stella's Blocks

I started painting stacks of blocks last spring, around the time of Stella's first birthday. We had really gotten into the game of "Mommy will build a big tower and Stella will knock it over!" She'd get so tickled when it was her turn to play. With the air of a seasoned performer, she'd make sure all eyes in the room were on her and then...lunge, crash, scatter! We had the best time. Later on things got even better when she and I started building towers together so "Stellzilla" (as we dubbed her alter ego) could pounce. Now she does most of the building, herself, and the goal is TALL!!! It entertains me how she will pick the longest blocks, such as the long cylinders, to build her creations - they're so difficult to stand on end individually and nearly impossible to stack on end in multiples. Yet, she just keeps trying, regardless of how many other, easier block options I offer her. She's good for about three or four tries to stack those cylinders and then frustration sets in and it's time to work puzzles or just tear around the room screaming with joy.

One of the paintings on my easel right now is an homage to Stella's beloved cylinders, and I intend to work with them for a few paintings to come. However, the photo I've included with this entry is the first stacked still life I painted, back when Mommy was the architect. It's called Stella's Blocks, oil/canvas, 24" x 18". It hung last June as part of the Harmony juried exhibit at the Associated Artists of Winston-Salem gallery.

Blocks and Balls

This painting, Blocks and Balls (Block Series), oil/canvas 24" x 18" flirts with abstraction more than any other work in my Block Series. I painted it at the same time as Red Tower and both works share a certain economy of brushstrokes and a strong white background that contrasts sharply with the subject. However, Red Tower does convey a bare minimum of shadow and suggestion of a surface, whereas Blocks and Balls leaves its subject floating in air. There is a sculptural quality to this one that I like. Also, it amuses me to imagine blocks and balls actually stacking like that. My daughter would be so delighted if it were that easy to build a big tower!

Arch

This painting, Arch (Block Series), oil/canvas 20" x 16", continues the work started during First Arch. I wanted to study the arch-shaped block again, this time turning it on its side and using it in a shorter stack of blocks and balls. Although I set up this particular still life composition, it reminds me of the kinds of choices my daughter makes when building with blocks. As adults we expect an arch to be oriented in a certain way and serve a particular purpose, but my daughter has no such expectations. An arch on its side is as useful for building towers as an arch laying flat - and it need not connect a thing! Visually, once again, the opening in the arch creates a sort of window through the stack as does the square doughnut-shaped block above it.

First Arch

Here is another painting in my Block Series. It's a small study on panel I completed for a larger work. I call it First Arch (Block Series), oil/panel 10" x 8". I enjoyed rendering the illusion that the tower continues both above and below the painting, that it is a mere section of a monstrous construction. You can only build a tower of blocks so tall before gravity has its say, but think of how grand those towers can be in our minds - especially in young minds still learning the hard truths of physics! I also like how the arch creates a window through the stacked objects, opening up the space beyond the blocks and adding depth.

Red Tower

Here is another painting in my Block Series completed around the same time as Holding , titled Red Tower (Block Series), oil/canvas 24" x 18". I enjoyed working with reds in this one. The primarly monochromatic scheme gave me an opportunity to focus on shapes and the tension between the objects and less on the interplay of several hues. This painting is also on display at the Associated Artists of Winston-Salem gallery through January 2nd, 2009.

Holding

I am excited to join the blogging community with Adventures in Still Life, my inaugural blog! Here is a photo of a painting I completed recently. It is part of a Block Series that I started work on during spring of this year. I loved the idea of painting stacks of blocks inspired by my young daughter's creations. She was still an infant at the time and I was doing more of the stacking than she was - desperate for entertainment! - but now she contributes her own designs, as well. Most of my Block Series paintings involve both studio setups and imaginative additions. I am exploring memory in my paintings, and I have found it instructive to spend time studying a still life during a painting session as well as between sessions: sometimes painting from life, other times from recollection. This approach works well with my gestured style of rendering objects and space.

This painting is called Holding (Block Series), oil/canvas 24" x 18" and is on display at the Associated Artists of Winston-Salem gallery in downtown Winston-Salem, NC until January 2nd. Please see their website for more information about their exhibitions and programs.

About the Block Series

I have always had a predisposition to study and celebrate objects. Material culture - the accumulated objects created by a society - is of great interest to me. I developed a passion for painting objects during university studies in archaeology. Through student research and work as a graphic artist at MASCA, the research lab at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology, I had the privilege of handling restricted artifacts in Penn’s world-renowned collection. As I turned over delicate Roman glass vessels in my hands and watched light fall across the point of a crumbling arrowhead, I was struck by the power of material culture. Innumerable stories dust the surfaces of these objects we create, use, and discard through daily life. My goal as an artist is to capture these stories and to reveal their power and beauty to others.

My enthusiasm for objects found a new voice when my daughter Stella burst into the world on April 8th, 2007. The joy, energy, and unbridled curiosity she ushered into my life on that cold spring day and every day since inspired the Block Series. During spring in 2008, I started painting "portraits" of Stella's block constructions. When she was very little I'd build exciting towers to entice her to crawl or walk and knock them down. Now she stacks the blocks and balls, teacups, Lego bricks...whatever is on hand. After painting some of Stella's towers I started dreaming up other creations and painting them. I have also spent a great deal of time in my studio studying her blocks and watching the light pool and bend on them. I enjoy exploring the edge between representation and abstraction, and simple object like blocks, balls, and basic toys are wonderful tools for this purpose. It has been a great inspiration for me to study these simple forms and find meaning in their design and arrangement.

As I watch my daughter at play I am reminded of our powerful link to objects during this crucial stage of human development. We navigate early childhood as empty vessels, looking for ways to fill ourselves with essential information about our world and the codes that govern our civilization. Ultimately, blocks, balls, and other playtime toys shape our understanding of what it means to be human. Objects tell so many stories about us and bind us together as a culture, establishing our rich legacy for future interpretation. Blocks, balls, and toys…these objects are as material to our collective human story as any of our more sophisticated creations.

The beauty and power of block play and stacked objects has instilled in me a passion to move the still life genre in a new direction - vertical. Many still life paintings are based on objects scattered across a surface. As an artist adds more objects to a typical still life setup, the composition starts to grow horizontally. I have found a new freedom in painting stacks. There is a tangible sense of forces acting on the subject: in a physical sense, we see this force as gravity. Metaphorically, however, a stack of blocks and toys has the power to convey many different kinds of influences and pressures active during childhood. Through my art I celebrate the profound sensual and psychological impact these objects have on our being.

Artist Statement

My greatest passion in life is to communicate with others through art. I paint to connect with people, to share my ideas about the world and humanity through color, shape, and texture. I have spent most of my life in the service of art. My background includes formal training in studio art and art history as well as employed and volunteer work with non-profit arts organizations. However, my favorite hours are those spent at the easel exploring new ways to convey ideas through paint.

I use expressive, gestural brushwork and layered painting techniques to create energy and vitality in my work. Favoring thick paint and palette knives along with brushes, I build texture and depth on the canvas. I incorporate neutrals and earth hues to stress the “natural” in my work, to convey the sense that any subject, even the most artificial, is linked to the earth. As a result of these choices my paintings embody the spirit of their subjects as well as their forms. Each new look brings greater understanding to the viewer, and bold compositions admired from a distance yield to tonal and textural nuances upon closer inspection.

I developed a passion for painting objects as a result of my university studies in archaeology. Through student research and work as a graphic artist at MASCA, the research lab at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology, I had the privilege of handling restricted artifacts in Penn’s world-renowned collection. As I turned over delicate Roman glass vessels in my hands and watched light fall across the point of a crumbling arrowhead, I was struck by the power of material culture. Innumerable stories dust the surfaces of these objects we create, use, and discard through daily life. My goal as an artist is to capture these stories and to reveal their power and beauty to others.

My enthusiasm for objects found a new voice when I became a mother in 2007. As I watch my daughter at play I am reminded of our powerful link to objects during this crucial stage of human development. We navigate early childhood as empty vessels, looking for ways to fill ourselves with essential information about our world and the codes that govern our civilization. Ultimately, blocks, balls, and other playtime toys shape our understanding of what it means to be human. Through my art I celebrate the profound sensual and psychological impact these objects have on our being.

Biography

Gina Pruette is a contemporary artist specializing in oil painting. She was born in Austin, TX in 1975 and received her B.A. (magna cum laude, with honors in Anthropology) from the University of Pennsylvania in 1997. Her instruction in oil painting began with her late grandmother, a master landscape and still life painter, in the early 1990s as well as summer courses in life drawing and graphic design at the Austin Museum of Art. During college she completed courses in art history and film and was employed at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia as a work-study student learning about art museum operations and exhibitions. She also worked as a graphic and digital artist for MASCA, the research lab at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology. While living in Portland, Maine in 2001, she completed additional coursework in oil and acrylic painting at the Maine College of Art under the direction of artist Brett Chenoweth.

Currently, she lives and works in Winston-Salem, NC and is a member of the Associated Artists of Winston-Salem.

 Gina Pruette’s work has been included in many juried exhibitions, including the Dimensions 2008 National Juried Exhibition. Her paintings are held in private collections throughout the United States.