Barbara Hirst: Recollective

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Barbara Hirst, "Burano," 2019

36" x 48"

“Recollective” is a show of Barbara Hirst’s work from Italy. New larger works from this series will be shown in one of the gallery rooms.  The work will be a feature for Gallery Walk September 21 and 22.

Artist’s Statement: A Conversation with Italy – Barbara Hirst

For centuries, Lake Garda has been a place of convalescence and leisure for Europeans. Its northerly position made it a strategic military location and desirable land acquisition throughout Italian history. Various towns around the lake still bear the remnants of castle fortifications run by the Scaligeri family in the 13th and 14th centuries. The location was also inspiring to artists from the north like Albrecht Dürer who depicted the castle ruin in Arco just 6 km north of Riva del Garda and Gustav Klimt who painted the castle at Malcesine on the west shore. The lake is shared by the three provinces of Verona, Brescia and Trentino.

These paintings were created during two trips to Riva del Garda, on the northern shore of Lake Garda in the region of Trentino, Italy in July 2017 and 2018. My choice in location was the result of my love of painting en plein air. While the weeks passed, the plein air practice became a dialogue between me and my surroundings. As the light moved from one side of the lake to the other, I found I could anticipate the color shifts and wanted to respond to them. In the early morning, Lake Garda was still and golden. In the afternoon, its color changed to muted pastels. Early evening brought hazy mountain shadows, causing dark aqua shades to appear and finally at night Lake Garda became a sea of ultramarine blue with the bright waterfront lights dancing on its surface. This changing light created a dramatic background from which to observe life and the passing of time until I returned home.

Over the winter, I worked in my studio on larger pieces using some of the small plein air works as studies. While doing so, I noticed grains of sand, bugs and other bits of natural debris stuck in the paint that nudged my memories of my time there. One might say that I experienced a sort of nostalgia and decided to return to Italy the following summer. When I arrived the second time, I was confronted with an abundance of subject matter from which I now had to choose to avoid repetition. I had to consider how to simplify the complexity of place as seen through my eyes as a visitor. This ongoing conversation caused me to appreciate how much painting is related to sensory experience, yet one’s personal feelings about the environment shape the landscapes created. I realized much of the value in working this way is that it forces me to be in the present moment and really observe life. In doing so, painting becomes not only a response to the landscape but also a way of finding one’s place within it. As one paints the land, one paints a point of view. The result is that when we leave the lands we visit, we take something away with us, much like we do after a good conversation with someone we are just getting to know.”

Barbara Hirst