About Paint, Light And Roses

Carrie Pearce is not new to Argazzi Art in Lakeville, CT. The Illinois-based artist first showed her paintings of children there  — haunted, otherworldly, frightening — two years ago. Then last year she exhibited a group of large paintings of horses, each a gorgeous rendering of a particular breed – an appaloosa, an Arabian, a paint —  glowing with vitality against a black background.

Pearce paints in a technique based on the dramatic chiaroscuro of the Renaissance. She covers her canvas or board with a layer of black and white, then glazes on color in many layers through which light enters the picture. The result in many of her paintings is rich color, deep contrasts and, often, a shimmering quality.

Now Pearce is at Argazzi again with a show of only six pieces that she calls Among Roses. Her conceit is that all six pictures are set in a rose garden, and all are based on a poem that Pearce has painted on the back of the board (Argazzi’s Judith Singelis has placed a printed version of each poem next to its painting). Each picture is in an unusual, even elaborate frame of Pearce’s design.

“Terra” is a lovely image that borders on the sentimental. A beautiful young woman looks out of the picture, her peach-toned face and large, dark eyes framed by a cascade of thick brown hair. In it she wears two luminous white roses, a bunch of grapes, two small cobs of meticulously painted field corn and a gray and white feather. The chiaroscuro shading is dramatic — the white roses emerge brilliantly, the grapes are almost translucent.

Then there is “Sown.” A reddish fox with delicate white on its nose and muzzle lies in the midst of white rose bushes. The animal looks out of the picture plane calmly; the rose blossoms are shaded except for one that is touched by the sunlight reaching through the bushes.

“Lullaby” is vaguely reminiscent of the Pre-Raphaelites: A bronzed young woman is sleeping on a bed of shaded white roses, her legs bent under the skirt of her white dress, which is pulled back to show them. She is watched over by three white rabbits, each brilliant against the rose bed. Is this a grownup Alice? (You’ll have to read the original poem painted on the back to decide.)

In “Brush,” a single white rabbit sniffs a hanging bunch of green grapes. He is in the rose garden surrounded by dull green foliage and fully-open white rose blossoms. 

This is Pearce’s nature: peaceful, gentle, a mix of animal and plant in a harmonious world. Would it were so.

Among Roses, Six Paintings by Carrie Pearce, continues at Argazzi Art through Nov. 14. The gallery at 22 Millerton Road in Lakeville, CT, is open weekends, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. For information, call 860-435-8222 or go to info@argazziart.com.