Suitcase Paintings, a collection by artist Kate McConnell on display at the Touchstone Gallery, is a vibrant, dream-like expression of nature and travel, consisting of works that McConnell painted outdoors and carried with her in her suitcase. The paintings emphasize emotion and experience, foregoing detail for bold colors applied with visible brush strokes.
McConnell makes a routine sacrifice of visual realism to attain greater accuracy of emotional value. To showcase the warmth and comfort of the woodland in “Forest Light,” McConnell restricts earthy greens to the edges of the image and fills the center with brilliant orange and gold, a stylistic exaggeration of the warm sunlight that shines between tree branches and blankets the forest air. An uncanny smudge of pale purple appears in the immediate center of the warmer colors, acting as a complement to make the gold appear bolder, simultaneously implying the diversity of color and light within the forest. The gold fills the scene with energy while the periwinkle reminds that the forest is also a calm, somber place. The foreground, consisting of trees and groundcover, is the most detailed aspect of the painting. It is formed entirely by rugged and organic lines, keeping the painting true to nature by reflecting the elemental origins of the scene.
Occasionally, man-made objects make an appearance in McConnell’s work but stand only as they relate to nature. “Wharf, Morning Light” is overwhelmingly pale blue sky and sea. The pier and buildings serve as a mere dividing line to mark the location and provide contrast. The buildings are simple, linear, and nondescript, so that they create a sharp contrast from the dynamic natural surroundings. The pier beneath them blends abstractly into the sea. The detail here is not nearly as important as the greater image, especially as the waves crash against the wharf, shifting the dividing line. Just above the sun’s early, yellow rays burst from the horizon, blending with and dispersing into the pale blue sky, contrasting the dark, purple in the sea. Even the direction of the brush strokes resembles the motion of the moment: the strokes in the sky tend upward, like the sun, while the strokes in the sea are horizontal undulations.
McConnell plays with perspective in “Garden Spirits I” and “Garden Spirits II”, each of which looks upward into a tree, along the twisted trunk and amid the yellow-orange blanket of leaves. The first features a distinct bluebird, but this clearly visible creature is not the only life that persists amongst the branches. Subtle variations in color form ethereal silhouettes of other birds, symbolic of the soul of nature.
For all the focus on nature, McConnell does not neglect the warm emotions of humanity in her collection. “Conversation I” and “Conversation II” depict highly abstracted human figures, shrouded in hot red and orange, outlined in black, highlighted in blue and white. Superficially, the images are almost the same, yet they capture distinctly different conversations. In “Conversation I,” the figures lean together and face one another with the line between their bodies blurred. The conversation is bringing the figures closer; they care for one another and are connected by their exchange. In “Conversation II,” the figures face away from each other, and there is a clear gap between them. The colors of the background are hotter and bolder than “Conversation I,” as though some other emotion has ignited in “Conversation II,” firing up a tension not present in the first image.
McConnell’s work is as expressive as it is beautiful, capturing honest, realistic, and authentic emotions through abstraction of natural scenes. Suitcase Paintings is a journey through nature, an exploration of light and color, and a spiritual interpretation of place. Each painting is a translation, revealing how images are converted into invigorating experience and emotion. The collection reminds viewers of the life and soul present in all aspects of our world through the simplest of techniques: line, color, and a love for exploration.
