From her home, Megan Whitfield studies the nature of water through different seasons and its relationship with the atmosphere. To Whitfield, it’s almost a living, breathing thing.
In a solo exhibition titled Veils of Water and Sky at Jawbone Gallery in Cape May, New Jersey, the artist will display roughly 30 works depicting the many colors, hues and atmospheres she observed during her time living on Cape May. In the show, which runs June 27 through July 27, Whitfield distills the coastal landscape to its poetic essence and invites viewers to walk into the scenes as she remembers them.
Let the Clouds Intercede, acrylic on canvas, 20 x 20 in.
Whitfield says her appreciation for the water began with growing up near the sea and time in her childhood spent with her grandfather, a Navy captain who survived Pearl Harbor. Now, as a Navy spouse, the sea and major waterways continue to be an overarching theme in her life. However, despite living near her subject of choice, she paints it almost exclusively from memory.
“I don’t always sit down to the canvas and say, ‘I’m painting a beach scene with palm trees and the sunset.’ I start my process out by putting down a base coat, an underpainting of sorts, and I allow the painting to kind of reveal itself to me,” says Whitfield.
Exiled, acrylic on canvas, 12 x 24 in.
“Most times, a composition comes to life just from the underpainting, and it will remind me of something I’ve seen before, and then I just take it from there. I work…to allow myself to be loose enough to not really care what exactly is going on the canvas, so that when things appear to me, I’m able to take it in a certain direction.”
Whitfield’s work isn’t driven by color but by high contrast points throughout the painting. She describes herself as a tonalist painter who uses color to draw viewers to the focal point of her pieces and enhance the narrative in each.
Iced Lake Solstice, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 30 in.
“I remember learning about da Vinci’s idea of sfumato—that way in the distance having the landscape be very soft edges and faint color,” says Whitfield. “I remember learning that, and I’d see it everywhere; I’d see it in person. I started to recognize that it’s all out there, in the landscape for us to see and understand, and assemble and apply it.”
Every painting of Whitfield’s in this upcoming exhibition is inspired by her time living on Cape May. Even if the landscape she paints is not of the peninsula itself, everything is rooted in the wild, rugged beauty she witnessed there.
The Sea’s Plunder, acrylic on canvas, 16 x 20 in.
“I thought about the sky and the water, and how they relate to each other, and all these different scenes and conditions—Cape May is very rough and rugged,” says Whitfield. “The elements are rough, but there is just undeniable beauty in all of it. [The paintings] are birthed from that same understanding of the conditions, the different landscapes being rougher than others, and how that relates to the water, and how the sky ties into all of it, and the atmosphere—how it creates this place.” —
Jawbone Gallery 31 Perry Street, No. 9 Cape May, NJ 08204 • (609) 600-2574 www.jawbonegallerycapemay.com
Powered by Froala Editor
