"Strength of Community" - oil and mixed media on board.Sana Rose, Contributor
ENGLISH-BORN artist P. J. Stewart, who has made Jamaica her home since 1972, is currently exhibiting her Recent Works at Mutual Gallery.
The works, which the artist says were done over one and a half years, are a collection of various subjects and themes such as landscape/flora, family, love, marriage, spiritual reflection and the brevity of life.
In short, Stewart's offering is a composite of life experiences and interests, a potpourri of images from figuration to abstraction. The main element that links the works together is her technique.
As we view, we are aware of the importance of the surface in the artist's process of working. Numerous layers of paint - oil, water-colour, and acrylic - often combined with graphite lines and fingerprints are used to build the images.
Stewart's way of working consists of painterly, dripped, stained, scumbled, spattered and washed applications of colour, layer upon layer.
In addition, rags are used to wipe paint from the surface and the paint is scratched, perhaps with a brush handle.
The element of chance is also introduced where the dripped and spattered colours are allowed to fall and run where they may, after which the artist pulls images from the surface.
Oranges and cool reds in many pieces warm the light, decidedly pastel-toned palette, The Comforter and My Brother's Keeper showing her usual delicate touches of colour. The artist's history with water-colour and stained glass influences the
light touch of her application of paint.
Above all, we acknowledge that subject is second only to technique. So, while the images are fully recognisable in the representational pieces and allude to various shapes and forms in the abstract works, the surfaces pull us close to each piece to examine the layered, fluid and engaging surfaces.
It is interesting to note that Stewart, although a graduate and teacher of art, was only able to concentrate on her work full-time in the last six years due to the various developments in her life where she wore many hats from wife and mother to design co-ordinator of the acclaimed Sandals chain of resorts.
But far from appearing unresolved, the works show an artist with a great deal of confidence and skill. With the various subjects contained in the images however, cohesiveness is lost. Even after three previous solo exhibitions, there is no well-defined conceptual concern or idea that is being explored in the entire body of work. At the same time, better organisation of the pieces could have facilitated better viewing.
Some of the works, which could have been grouped together since they inter-relate in subject or theme, are separated. One is unable to fully grasp the relationships between the works. For example, The Groom, The Bride and Veil are mounted next to each other, while Secret Love is on the opposite side of the room.
FLORAL PIECES
In another instance, the floral pieces Reflection Pool, Bromeliad Waltz and The Gardener's Glory are mounted on three different walls.
This collection of Stewart's paintings reveals aspects of her life and interests.
"As all creative people recognise, the theatre of our lives provides the material of our focus. We inhale in our environment and exhale 'works'. It is giving words to the poem, step to the dance, sound to the music, that gives the substance," she says.
In her case, she is picturing her theatre of life experiences - her work with Missionaries for the Poor that influences spiritual and social contemplation, her love of nature and occurrences in daily life.
But while we are able appreciate that the language of these paintings is most eloquent in the surfaces, we must concede that a cohesive conceptual statement would make them more impacting. The exhibition ends December 5.
