NYAB Event - Allison Stewart “Natural Wonders III”

Allison Stewart “Natural Wonders III”

Kathryn Markel Fine Arts

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Kathryn Markel Fine Arts presents Natural Wonders III, an exhibition of new paintings by Allison Stewart.

Equal parts biologist and painter, Allison Stewart is a painter of biological forms. Her primary inspiration is derived from the bayou surrounding her Louisiana home and studio; a landscape, which has experienced a great deal in recent history, from hurricanes to catastrophic oil spills. Stewart is deeply connected to her surroundings, sensitive to both its flourishes and its vulnerabilities, and all the states that lay between the two extremes. Her color palette reflects that constant state of flux, here it is dark, opaque and intimidating, there it is softly layered, wash-like-one gets the impression of looking at an object on a river’s bottom. Imagery is abstracted and while it is organic it is also nonspecific, reminiscent and familiar, it resists classification. Stewart works on several canvases in tandem, creating a comprehensive body of work, each expressing a particular aspect of a narrative. This process also facilitates her practice of painting intuitively. She paints freely, with no preconceived notions of how the end product will appear. Stewart uses numerous mediums-clays, glazes, tar, gesso, ink, and many others, to capture the sentiment of the Louisiana wetlands.

Allison Stewart has exhibited extensively throughout the United States and abroad. This is Stewart’s fourth solo exhibition with Kathryn Markel Fine Arts. She received her MFA from the University of New Orleans and her BS in biology from the Spring Hill College. Her work is included in numerous public and private collections, and she has been the recipient of several awards including 2009’s Artist Honoree award from the New Orleans Museum of Art.

[Image: Summer’s End #2, Mixed media on canvas, 48 x 60 inches]