Mary Beth Barrett

Gourds

Oil on Panel

12.5 x 17.5 x .12", framed to 15 x 20 x 1"

$825

Work Currently Displayed at Crossroads Art Center

I love all the variety of color and quirky shapes of gourds. I am a New England girl through and through and fall has always called to me. Every fall we take a trip to our favorite farm stand to snatch up some of these beauties. This particular group inspired me to paint them.

Artist's Statement: 

I am fascinated with the illusion of three dimensionality on a two dimensional surface. Creating depth, texture and the illusion of reality is magical to me. I want the viewer to feel that they can pick up the objects, touch the faces, feel the breeze. I love the challenge of creating those tactile impressions. My years as a dancer/choreographer working in a three dimensional, rectangular space and creating impermanent work have led me to seek its opposite. But the irony is that what I create with paint on a flat surface feels more spacious than the works I created on stage. That tension between reality and illusion, dimensionality of space and making the impermanent permanent is what motivates all my work today.