Loren Doucette 2 Exhibitions 2015
"When Spirit Calls" solo show at the Marblehead Art Association
8 Hooper Street, Marblehead
August 15-September 26
September 23-October 13
Artist Statement
When Spirit Calls
When Spirit Calls embodies a few groupings of work created since October of 2013. The paintings are made from multiple Cape Ann locations where I spend extended periods to create a series of paintings on paper, canvas and wood. Painting the landscape grounds me to what is peaceful, simple and quiet while at the same time, keeping me excited and curious. I seek to find the “beingness” and true spirit of the place which multiple visits to the same location can provide. As I take it in, I let the atmosphere dictate my palette, brushstrokes and mark making. I respond quickly and energetically, a painting approach greatly inspired by the Bay Area Figure Painters. Using acrylic paint, I incorporate graphite and pastel lines that describe architecture and directional forces in the landscape.
Since graduating from art school in 2013, I hold on to teachings about drawing and painting while remaining open to an entirely new vocabulary. After painting the “Marsh at Good Harbor” series, my work became more pixilated where I broke down the vast landscape into flat spots of color reminding me of my work with collage and studies with my Montserrat professor, Timothy Harney. Since 2013, I have also been continuously interested in the idea of the diptych landscape (two separate pieces working as one painting).
When the weather doesn’t allow for outdoor painting, I try to bring the same energetic spirit to my work indoors. Over the Winter of 2014, I found myself newly interested in still life, especially in a series of red flower paintings (one of the smaller works hangs in this exhibit). The graphite lines I incorporate with the paint express a sense of urgency and vitality I was feeling as I observed the vase of flowers. Like in the landscape, I am driven by working from observation yet equally charged by departing from it. The freedom to deviate from the landscape at any moment leads to the crossroads where realism and abstraction meet, a place that interests me most at this time.
