Nature, nurture at Fountain Street Fine Arts

Two local artists reveal their views of the world through form and color in a new exhibit, “Painting, Sculpture: The Art of Michelle Lougee and Bob Grignaffini,” at the Fountain Street Fine Art Gallery in Framingham.

Using bright colors and defined shapes, sculptor Lougee of Cambridge and painter Grignaffini, originally from Wellesley, intend to depict the fragile relationship between humans and nature.

An environmental sculptor and artist, Lougee creates colorful, spiritual sculptures to capture the importance of humans’ responsibility to the earth and the controversial question of nature vs. technology. Her simple, cellular forms expose the reality of the world and relay a clear message to viewers: “What are we going to do?”

“We are in a dangerous place right now,” Lougee said, “The way we live affects us in the future.”

For example, “Plume” is a tubular structure of black, interwoven plastic bags inspired by last year’s BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The bags are not tightly woven, which gives the sculpture the appearance of netting.

Grignaffini’s oil paintings reflect his views on places around the world. Using bright colors within solid forms, he captures the movement and light that make a scene come to life. He said his paintings are a “celebration of color and form” within pastoral and small town landscapes.

“Everything has spirit in it,” he said, “I try to be honest with the way I’m laying the paint down.”

Not all of his subjects are real.

Created in Grignaffini’s mind, “Pathway Through a Garden” is meant to be an interactive piece for viewers. He invites us to step into the painting with a long staircase passing through a beautiful garden of bright greens, yellows and blues.

Both artists gain inspiration from nature. Grignaffini’s paintings attempt to show a sense of movement and life in otherwise stationary objects. Lougee loves the otherworldliness of the ocean and bases many of her sculptures on deep-sea life forms.

Grignaffini’s “Old Beech Tree” reveals an ancient Italian forest, in which he uses bright colors and profound shadows to capture the movement of light among the trees. It inspired many of his other paintings displayed in the exhibit.

“Saxonville” depicts a familiar landscape along the Sudbury River. This painting is particularly special to Grignaffini because it is near his former home, and both of his children were born there. It also represents his desire to share the shapes and colors within everyday scenery.

Ocean plankton in the “Eastern Garbage Patch” off the coast of Hawaii inspired Lougee’s “Dinoflagellate.” The sculpture, created with crocheted plastic bags, looks like a vortex of life forms meant to represent the effect of toxins on sea creatures within the patch.

Lougee’s panel pieces give an organic form to inorganic substances. Ironed and fused together, the beige plastic bags give an appearance like worn parchment. Yarn-like strands of plastic bags sewn into the panels create a wall sculpture and give life to the inorganic materials.

Gallery co-founder Cheryl Clinton said she loves the combination of paintings and sculptures. The shapes, composition and palette create a rhythm between the works, which visually connects them to one another and makes an appealing display.

Lougee uses repurposed materials to create her sculptures. Her current favorites are clay and plastic bags, which she began using four years ago. She turns the bags into yarn and crochets them into shapes. The ease and portability of the pieces make it easy to work on anywhere.

Grignaffini likes to use different styles when he paints, usually beginning the process with a charcoal sketch of a scene he wants to paint. He works primarily in his studio at the Fountain Street Gallery, but also enjoys working en plein air.

The Evolution Of Modern Art Painting

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The global acceptance of modern art has led to its presence being seen in various forms in many art exhibitions. Any exhibition, boasting of art paintings for sale, is sure to include some form or other of modern art paintings.

Modern art painting is termed as abstract expression of the artists on the canvass. The painting is not specific to any object, but the centralized theme is reflected in the painting using colours and images on the minds of those artists. The evolution of modern art as an activity, started during the World War II and its origin can be traced in America. The word was coined by Robert Coates who was a famous critic of automatic and spontaneous expression of creativity in the form of paintings.

The modern art painting is the first of its kind in artistic movements in America (in Russia such movement was seen during the era of constructivism) which went on to gain global importance. Willem De Kooning and Arshile Gorky are the pioneers in this field.

The modern art is again sub divided into action painting and colour field painting. The former category was practiced by Philip Guston and Franz Kline who stressed upon the aspects related to physical action in the painting works. The latter category of modern art was practiced by Kenneth Moland and Mark Rothko who stressed more on the use of colour effects in their works.

There are no hard and fast regulations that can be used to draw a line for evolution of modern art paintings. The common form of art used by the artists are derived by the form of accessories they use and the pattern they follow while expressing their thoughts, such as use of large canvas, stressing on the flatness of the canvass and spreading the art across the canvass, thus using the whole area available.

The abstract expressionist painting as a form of art, lost its ground in early 1960’s but it influenced the minimalist and pop art forms to a large extent. Pop art concentrates on mass themes like comics and commercial advertisements whereas minimalist form of art concentrates on the use of minimal colour to express the thoughts. The minimal use of colours enable ripping apart the existing art into basic geometrical designs and bring about the fundamental features to the fore. The modern art painting, though not very popular in its original form, is now globally acknowledged in other forms of art.



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