For some New England painters, the natural landscape is meant to be preserved on canvas. For two hundred years, artists have trekked across the mountains, across the seashore and through reforested ranges to find nature's perfect composition.
Mary Byrom follows in the footsteps of those artists who have taken their paints and brushes to these majestic landscapes. "In the tradition of the celebrated American artists who have gone before me I pack up my paints, follow in their footsteps and set out to discover the soul of a place, to try to capture the fleeting moments of time when the air, the clouds, the land and the light are calling out my name," she says in a statement of her art.
Byrom enjoys the outdoors in every season and discovers interesting subjects in New England's varied topography. "Able to venture far off the beaten track in all kinds of weather I find myself being drawn to painting moments of rare beauty I encounter along the seacoast and in the White Mountains of New Hampshire."
She paints "en plein air" and describes her latest work as a return to what she loves. "After years of being ill and unable to stand long enough to paint, or walk far enough to reach a wild place, now that I am healthy again I have dedicated myself to painting alla prima and en plein air." "Alla prima" artists paint in the outdoors and welcome the camaraderie of fellow artists to discuss art ideas during gatherings.
"En plein air" is a French expression which means "in the open air," and is particularly used to describe the act of painting in the outside environment rather than indoors, such as in a studio. Artists have long painted outdoors, but in the mid-1800s working in natural light became particularly important to the Barbizon school. The popularity of painting "en plein air" increased with the introduction in the 1870s of paints in tubes. Previously, each painter made their own paints by grinding and mixing dry pigment powders with linseed oil.
It was during this period that the "Box Easel" was invented. These highly portable easels with telescoping legs, built-in paint box, and pallet made treks into the forest and up the hillsides less onerous.
Painting in the outdoors calls on her skills in a very focused way. Byrom says, "The land, the water, the trees, the sky, the clouds, the air are all around me and it's up to me to capture that feeling and paint it for someone else far away in another place and time to be able to pause, appreciate and savor a morsel of this moment and beauty." The popularity of outdoor painting has remained constant throughout the 20th century and into the 21st century. Byrom finds something spiritual in her art. She is now working in a new direction and says the plein air painters of the American West and the Hudson River School are influencing a current series that she is working on.
Her latest collection of paintings being exhibited calls itself "a significant milestone in an artist's life that was 'abruptly interrupted.'" A month after a 1989 exhibit of paintings, she was hit by car. Although Byrom survived, she was severely disabled and spent 10 years in physical therapy and rehabilitation. She was also unable to do what she wanted most to do: paint. In 1999, after starting a meditation and exercise practice of Falun Gong, she was able to return to a normal, pain-free life.
Her show is titled "Entering the Landscape" which the exhibiting studio describes as "an individual's being able to return to the places she loved after being away for years." Now in perfect health, Mary Byrom paints scenes along the seacoast and in the White Mountains every month of the year.
Byrom's paintings will be exhibited at Kennedy Studios, Market Square, Portsmouth NH until July 31, 2006.
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