Art Review: "GREAT ESCAPES" Pastel Paintings by Georgette Sinclair.
Gallery RIVAA, 527 Main Street, Roosevelt Island, NYC.
October 18 - November 23, 2008. Published 11/24/2008.
Review written by Johnes Ruta, 22 Willard Street, New Haven, CT 06515
Creative writer; Independent curator, since 1988. Art Director New Haven Free Public Library.
http://azothgallery.com/
azothgallery@comcast.net
azothgallery@comcast.net
At the Gallery RIVAA on Roosevelt Island, artist Georgette Sinclair has mounted a wide-ranging
and impressive exhibition of small pastel landscape paintings, in which she shows a distinct
and diverse talent to transport the viewer into peaceful dimensions of soft pastel light, using
and impressive exhibition of small pastel landscape paintings, in which she shows a distinct
and diverse talent to transport the viewer into peaceful dimensions of soft pastel light, using
contrasts of color and scale -- Sinclair's views of fields, woods, and country roads of the
Scotland, Burgundy, and Vermont places where she periodically travels.
Even at mid-day, only faint eastern light filters into the store-front windows of the Gallery RIVAA
from the Roosevelt Island city street, even further remote behind low embankment seating
of the showcase area. But the interior space is moreover a comfortably-lit complex of open
and long rooms, ambient walls, and display spaces both wide and narrow.
Georgette Sinclair "Burgundy France" pastels on paper, 15"w x 11"h.
The gallery space is normally conducive to a variety of frequent group shows, and is a popular
and well-supported artists collective. But as the sole artist on display, Sinclair's work poetically
and well-supported artists collective. But as the sole artist on display, Sinclair's work poetically
fills the entire space and easily engages the viewer into her world of both deep and bright
color hues of blue, orange, yellow, and brown: In pieces like "Sunrise Isle of Skye, Scotland,"
"Mists of Burgundy," "Corn Field in November," and "Nocturne -- Queady Lake, NY," visible
strokes of the artist's pastel brush upon white paper provide a subtle undertone which
seeps into the viewer's consciousness rather as reflected surfaces of light.
Georgette Sinclair "Island of Skye, Scotland" pastels on paper, 15"w x 11"h.
In "Sacre Coeur, Paris" a cathedral rises against a darkening sky, shadowy trees line
"Mists of Burgundy," "Corn Field in November," and "Nocturne -- Queady Lake, NY," visible
strokes of the artist's pastel brush upon white paper provide a subtle undertone which
seeps into the viewer's consciousness rather as reflected surfaces of light.
Georgette Sinclair "Island of Skye, Scotland" pastels on paper, 15"w x 11"h.
In "Sacre Coeur, Paris" a cathedral rises against a darkening sky, shadowy trees line
the embankment of the Seine along which people stroll quietly in their own evening worlds.
In "Passing Storm, VT," green lake water reflects the lavender twilight sky, soft and cloudy;
the landscape recedes from detailed perspectives into unfocused distant horizons of
blue and turquoise mountains. In "Pasture," a S-shaped bright green field curves between
blue and turquoise mountains. In "Pasture," a S-shaped bright green field curves between
dark green woods along both sides.
Ms. Sinclair, also an Audiologist, was a 1980's émigré from Romania. She says that she is
fascinated by the beauty of nature and finds poetry in scenes which express a mood by freezing
a moment. Indeed, her landscape expressions capture the moods and fragments of time.
Georgette Sinclair "France - Sunflower Field" pastels on paper, 12"w x 5"h.
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