Arts Club of Washington in February ~ Potomac Artworks

1.11.2014

Arts Club of Washington in February

"Safe Passage"
Photograph on Canvas
34"x22"

In her February 2014 "Safe Passage" exhibition at the Arts Club of Washington, Bonnie Ferguson Butler employs metallic ink photographs, photos on canvas, and pastels to explore various means of transportation, transition, and movement in Italy, both the figurative and the literal. Images vary from the tiny boat and mysterious alley in the photo entitled "Safe Passage," to the unseen breeze and religious connotation in the pastel, "Vatican Illuminated."

Some of these images of Northern, Central, and Southern Italy will demonstrate double entrendre like these, but the primary focus relates to an implied sense of movement - windows, doors, water taxis, laundry in the sunny wind, and scooters - which is caught before, during or after the action.

February 2 - March 2, 2014
Opening February 7, 6-9 PM

Arts Club of Washington
Monroe House
2017 I St NW
Washington, DC 20006

Like each of her previous exhibits, this series demonstrates Butler's love of travel and curiosity about how locations influence art. A Missouri native raised in South Carolina who resides in Northern Virginia, Butler joined the Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton, Virginia, in 2009 and enjoys regular exhibits in Gallery 902. A published biochemist, her art training began as an awakening during a required liberal arts class outside her science majors at Wofford College; her graduate studies were in Humanities and Art History at the University of Richmond. She has pursued many studio classes and workshops since, studying most recently with Liz Haywood-Sullivan, Jack Pardue, and Maggie Price. Butler is founder and president of the Pastel Society of Virginia and a member of Pastel Society of America. Her blog is available at bfbutler.blogspot.com.

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The Charm of en Plein Air

Much of my work is done en plein air, French for "in the open air." People often associate it with the Impressionists, but the move to paint outside preceded them by a number of decades. The trend to appreciate landscapes as a genre at all was new for the time.

Several characteristics contribute to the distinctive beauty of en plein air painting. They are generally smaller in size in order to be able to capture a scene in a single sitting. Because of the time limit and environmental factors such as the sun and shadows moving, they often lack extensive details and might appear slightly fuzzy or unfinished. Lastly, they tend to have a freshness and spontaneity which makes them impossible to compare to traditional and methodological studio work. That said, my own studio work tends toward the same feel as en plein air, which then identifies my overall style: softness with an edge.

My aim when painting en plein air is for alla prima paintings, which roughly translates for me as "what happens outside, stays outside." It adds another level of difficulty to the work.

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1.11.2014