Clint Mansell, director of Principle Gallery in Arlington, Virginia, comments, “In Lindsey Kustusch’s previous exhibition, I asked her to focus exclusively on cityscapes. The results were extraordinary, but for this exhibition, I wanted to remove those guidelines and invite Lindsey to choose the subject matter.”
Outside the Garden Gate opens at the gallery on September 18 and continues through October 5.
Good Morning, Spring, oil on panel, 30 x 20 in.
Kustusch explains, “My idea behind the theme was to invite the viewer into the magic of what lies beyond the garden gate. I’ve been calling the pieces ‘fairytale adjacent’ with a slightly witchy undertone, as they explore a slightly darker and more imaginative take on the subject matter.”
Within the Forest Deep recalls her often brooding cityscapes. It is a painting of wildness in the wilderness. The black wolves’ inherent wild energy that enables them to survive in their untamed habitat and maintain their societal structure is one of the beautiful mysteries of nature. “The painting represents the stories that I love the most,” she says, “…campfire tales of mythical creatures that roam the dark, untouched wilderness. Lore that stops us from walking past the garden gate, and leaves us with the lingering question of, what world will we enter if we stumble too far? The ravens in This Will Always Beare equally enchanting but remind us that that life is also gentle and sweet, familiar and filled with romance. Beauty is truly all around us, it just depends on how we see it.”
This Will Always Be, oil on panel, 36 x 24 in.
The ravens she refers to in This Will Always Be perch romantically atop a post decked with wildflowers—an anthropomorphic matrimonial reference to the fact that ravens mate for life, groom each other and defend their territory together.
In the New Morning Lightdepicts ravens in flight, their wing and tail feathers performing extraordinary feats as they rise into the air and maneuver playfully throughout the sky with one another. Some feathers act like individual wings, with sensitive nerve endings at the base of the feathers sensing changes in air pressure and allowing the ravens to adjust their feathers for better flight. Rising, soaring and cavorting ravens are things of beauty.
In the New Morning Light, oil on panel, 24 x 48 in.
The “reality” of their flight is balanced by abstraction in the way she applies her paint.
She experiments “with various forms of abstraction that help add texture and ‘emotion’ to the scene. Fleeting moments and memories stitched together by spontaneous shapes and colors, which I believe is very true to how we experience real life,” Kustusch explains. “And so, for this piece, my intent was to follow that thought, and create a sense of fleeting wildness that we feel while pushing the boundaries of abstraction and nature’s whimsical magic.”
Within the Forest Deep, oil on panel, 20 x 40 in.
She composed this piece first in photoshop, and then painted the image over multiple sessions using a variety of tools such as brushes, palette knives and even makeup sponges which Kustusch says, “came in quite handy for adding the final touches to the meadow blossoms.” —
Principle Gallery 208 King Street • Alexandria, VA 22314 • (703) 739-9326 • www.principlegallery.com
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