Palette: Four Takes on Five Colors
On view March 18 - May 12, 2023
Sat 3/18, 4-6 pm: Opening Reception
Sat 4/15, 4-6 pm: On Assignment - a conversation with the artists of Palette
Sat 4/29, 12-6 pm: Show and Tell - a painting demonstration with Paul Beckingham
13FOREST Gallery is pleased to present Palette: Four Takes on Five Colors, featuring new paintings by Linda Cordner, Bonita LeFlore, Deborah Peeples and Heather Pilchard.
Palette began with an unusual assignment given to the artists: create a series of paintings using a limited palette of five colors. The inspiration for this parameter came from Peeples, who had once challenged herself to create a series of paintings from a group of wax pigments she happened to have stored together on a shelf. For this show, the artists themselves settled on a common palette of five warm and cool colors from the painting Sandwich #2 by Zoey Frank, then set out to create their own paintings comprised of those colors.
Imposing restrictions on an artist might seem detrimental to the creative process, but for an adventurous painter a limitation can inspire new ways of working or modes of expression. Working with an unfamiliar color palette can inspire a painter to abandon familiar techniques and explore new ideas, producing work that feels fresh and exciting. The four artists of Palette gamely took on our challenge and created an exhibition with a unifying visual motif that simultaneously highlights the uniqueness of their individual perspectives.
Preview Palette: Four Takes on Five Colors
About the Artists
Linda Cordner grew up in Connecticut and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts, with concentrations in graphic design and painting, from the University of Connecticut. She works in her studio in Lincoln, Massachusetts. Color, light and depth are expressed in her paintings through layering, and an abstracted geometry that references nature and the aging of things.
Bonita LeFlore is a New England artist best known for her large paintings referencing the architecture of forgotten places. She studied at the Art Students League in New York, graduated from Syracuse University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting, and attended Pratt Institute's Masters program for painting. Influenced by the color field paintings of Helen Frankenthaler and the vivid palette of Joan Mitchell, LeFlore finds working with acrylic paint on unprimed canvas a medium that lends itself to a transparency that gives her subject matter life.
Deborah Peeples is a Boston area painter who works out of Joy Street Studios in Somerville. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Washington University School of Fine Arts and also studied at the Lake Placid School of Art. She returned to a full-time art practice after raising her family and working for many years as a community, social and political activist. Peeples has been an active member of several artist groups, is Board President of the Cambridge Art Association, and has exhibited her work throughout the United States. Her work can be found in collections across the United States and abroad.
Heather Pilchard is a painter, photographer and bookbinder. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in 1995. She has exhibited widely in New England as well as nationally. Pilchard is a year-round resident of Eastham on Cape Cod and lives in a house just above a salt marsh. She is a volunteer with the Wellfleet Bay Audubon Society helping to rescue cold stunned sea turtles and monitors diamondback terrapins during their nesting season. Her paintings are meditations on the natural world, for which she hopes to convey her deep awe and respect.