THE CANVAS-JAN/FEB 2009

by Suzette McAvoy

Colin Page, Denise Remy & Vivian Russe

“Cézanne made a living thing out of a teacup, or rather in a teacup he realized the existence of something alive. He raised still life to such a point that it ceased to be inanimate. He painted these things as he painted human beings, because he was endowed with the gift of divining the inner life in everything.” Wassily Kandinsky

A Sumptuous Visual Feast

The words “sumptuous” and “luxuriant” come to mind when viewing Colin Page’s recent still-life paintings. Even when depicting the remains of a simple meal or a few selected objects on a brocade tablecloth, Page reminds us to luxuriate in the everyday and to savor the sumptuous visual feasts that are freely available to us—if, of course, we choose to look.

In Ostentation, a painting from the artist’s most recent body of work, two white porcelain plates, two polished red apples, a pear, and a banana compose the basic elements of the still life, while a single peacock feather, which visually conjoins the plates, strikes the “show-off” note that gives the painting its title. The layered leaf patterns and dramatic red palette of the background, along with the hint of Orientalism, suggest the abiding spirit of Matisse.

“What initially drew me to painting these still lifes,” says Page, “was the color and pattern of the fabrics, and how looking down on the scene they became like a wallpaper backdrop for the objects. This was fun because it gave me a chance to work with colors that I rarely use in landscape, and I was working with such a shallow space, as opposed to the landscapes I spend so much time painting.”

Selecting and arranging the objects for still-life paintings gives Page more control over the compositional elements than in his landscape paintings, which he paints directly from nature. Both forms, however, attest to his belief that “painting is making everyday scenes into the poetic” and that “the painting should look as though it breathes and has a life and presence of its own.”

Page is a young artist who is gaining rapid recognition for the fresh perspective he brings to the longstanding tradition of still life and representational painting.

Ostentation, 2008, Oil on canvas, 24” x 20”

Notations on A Mindful Life

Denise Remy’s recent still-life paintings reflect her “love of the so-called ‘ordinary, little’ things in life,” and as such they serve as poetic reminders of the importance of the everyday. They are small snapshots of beloved things, notations on how to live a mindful life, that are served up-close and personal by the artist.

Remy’s paintings are deceptively modest; their visual complexity and symbolic resonance sneak up on the viewer, the way a poem by Mary Oliver or Billy Collins might. The painting Olives, for example, is in simple terms a portrayal of Calamata olives in a Japanese saucer with a silver fork resting on the rim. Closer observation reveals the richness of the surfaces, the shiny darkness of the olives contrasted against the bright metallic shine of the fork, and the pearlescent finish of the saucer suggesting an open oyster embracing a clutch of dark pearls.

In pairing Greek olives with an antique saucer and fork, Remy references the long tradition of still-life painting that stretches back to ancient times, while her choice of a closely cropped composition and aerial vantage point fixes the piece clearly in the present. The tight cropping, small scale, and unusual viewpoint, aided by the use of a camera, are all hallmarks of the artist’s earlier domestic narrative paintings of which her recent still lifes are a logical extension.

These earlier works depict people in ordinary moments—drying dishes, vacuuming, or relaxing—but present them slightly off kilter and caught unawares. At times in these works, the artist reveals “some sides of human nature that many of us would rather try to hide.” With her foray into still-life painting, Remy remains a keen observer of life, employing objects to create symbolic portraits of “what it means to be human.”

Reflections on Reality

In 2004, Vivian Russe moved her studio from downtown Portland to the Dana Warp Mill in Westbrook. The move prompted a recent series of paintings, collectively titled Reflections, inspired by the nearby Presumpscot River and the abundant natural light that floods the new studio space.

“In the studio, the windows are large enough that there is an enormous amount of natural light—something that was useful for factory workers, and is now for a painter as well,” says Russe. “These same tall windows are placed high enough that the river itself is not easily visible in the room. Yet I find that the presence of the river, and all the possibilities it embodies, permeates the space.”

The Other Side, a striking still life from the Reflections series, exemplifies the crisp clarity and layered complexity of Russe’s aesthetic vision. Composed of an alarm clock, a clear glass of water, two dark plums, and a handful of cherries against a spare backdrop, the painting succinctly addresses the interrelationship of time, nature, and reality.

In a traditional nature morte, the passage of time is evoked through the inclusion of fruit in various stages of decay. But in Other Side, the fruit remains ripe and unblemished; time has been arrested, obscured through the other side of the glass of water. Suspended in the water, the image of the clock face recalls the melted clocks of Salvador Dali’s dream world, referencing the many realities that exist within each moment of time.

“I have long been influenced by transcendentalist philosophy,” says Russe, “…what we see at any given time has inherent in it multiple other associations, memories, thoughts and ideas, tangible or otherwise.” In Other Side, Russe uses the pictorial devices of reflection and transparency to explore multiple, interrelated levels of reality and to question the very nature of perception.