Process and Place by Trish Thompson October 25 2014
Process and Place by Trish Thompson
On view: November 1- 29, 2014
Opening reception: Saturday, November 1, 4-7pm
Artist Talk: Friday, November 7, 11am
New Smyrna Beach, FL — Arts on Douglas announces a new solo exhibition, titled Process and Place by Trish Thompson. The exhibition will be on view November 1-29, 2014 with an opening reception Saturday, November 1st from 4-7pm.
Trish Thompson’s work draws attention to the planarity of painting by dislodging the spatial illusion of representation. Her paintings might include familiar referential elements such as trees cutting across the horizon line or shadows departing from a light source. However, the imagery is repeatedly interrupted by singular marks, texture, shapes, color, or grids applied to the surface. The painted marks and the potential illusion of place become ungrounded, resulting in a pictorial space that achieves a balance between abstraction and representation.
Thompson approaches painting with an acute awareness of the technical challenges and possibilities of the medium. For Thompson, "the surface is the subject matter." Surface constraints such as size, proportion, orientation, and texture establish limits, but they also yield creative possibilities.
“I don’t work toward a predefined image or ‘end product’ when I begin a painting. I prefer the process to the product” Thompson explains. The interaction between the material surface and pictorial space is where imagery emerges.The painting process is a generator for thinking with and through paint. She creates the conditions and challenges of the medium, some of which are self-imposed and some that out of the artist's control. From these constraints emerge a number of dynamic alternatives.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Trish Thompson has been represented by Arts on Douglas since its onset in 1996. She recently retired from her position as professor in the Cultural Arts Department at Daytona State College, where she taught painting, design, and art appreciation courses. She has exhibited her work in solo and group shows at the Appleton Museum of Art, Ocala; Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland; Florida State University Museum of Art, Tallahassee; Daytona Beach Museum of Arts and Sciences; Mount Dora Center for the Arts; and Pensacola Museum of Art. Thompson’s work is also included in public and corporate collections in Orlando, Atlanta, London, Japan, and the President’s Palace in Bogota, Colombia.