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Press Release
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“Open Air Painting” – Contemporary Landscapes by Maddine Insalaco
In these open air paintings, Maddine Insalaco recaptures a tradition going back to 16th century Italy, where early open air artists were the first to advance their skills through perceptional observations from nature. Leonardo da Vinci, writing at the time, encouraged students to use nature rather than other artists as the authority in learning to paint. The early open air artists were the first to appreciate the quality of outdoor sketches. The fast moving light of the sun and unpredictable weather conditions force the artists to work fast. As a result culture has less of a chance to insert itself as style or fashion and leave its trace. Thus artists working at a distance of 200 or more years from each other, equipped with the same tools, can produce works of astonishing similarities. The careful observation of nature and it’s translation into paint continuously refines Maddine Insalaco’s color sensitivity and sharpens her pictorial skills today. She realized that painting outdoors offers an unusual experience of authenticity. All senses are involved in provoking the deepest appreciation of the beauty of the natural world. To Maddine Insalaco, long accustomed to painterly, physical works of art, a brush stroke represents more than just the reality of paint itself. She compares the movement and selective touching by the artist’s hand to human life in movement. It is these marks and strokes, these signs of life, which confirm her connection with artists of the past. In an industrial world determined to remove the visual evidence of the hand (manus) in manufacture, painting retains a unique status and the human fondness to touch and mark explains its resilience and continuity.
In open air painting the simple act of looking and quietly observing enhances the experience of being alive. There is nothing quite like it. This fact must certainly have contributed to the longevity of the open air painting tradition.
The exhibition will be on view from June 7 – July 20, 2008 A reception is planed for June 21 from 5 – 7 PM
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