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Jeanette R. Durham: Abstractions from Nature     From her earliest figurative works, Jeanette Durham has been consistently interested in abstraction, in more common realism. Her 1983 Spring Hills, ostensibly a rolling landscape, shows the curves that will become dominantly abstract in her later works.     Durham’s best medium is oil, where she can push her ideas to more exciting bounds. At first, these paintings reflected the transparency seen in her earlier washes. But Cloud Form from 1980 shows the emergence of a sense of shape in addition to more vibrant colors. It is these two aspects (shape and color) which dominate her best works, as in the series of waterfalls from the early nineties.      In these waterfall paintings, the complexity of pattern is more resolved than in the earlier charcoal studies and is reminiscent of the contemporary work of Neil Welliver. These waterfalls are locked into dynamic compositions with water, trees, leaves and earth. The patterns and textures are most interesting in and of themselves, moving beyond simple representation to potent insights into the interdependencies of nature. Neither water, earth nor trees exist in and of themselves. Like mankind, there are interlocked with each other.      Sometimes the decorative power of these strong waterfall paintings reflects Japanese prints, as in Hokusai’s series of Mt. Fuji. But the earthiness is American, relating back to the early American modernists such as Arthur Dove.      Also strong is the pink Aurora Borcalis from 1992, where the pelting pink light has the power of thunderstorms. Nature’s power is shown as undiluted and untouched by man.     In her 1996 series of whirlpools, it is the charcoals which are more readable. The surfaces are still thin and incomplete, but the depth is more readable than in the more abstract oils. In those paintings, abstraction dominates, with resonances to the work of Goergia O’ Keeffe, most evident in the gray and other paintings, where the sinkholes appear as light as clouds.     There is a freedom and space in these paintings that is reminiscent of flight. Yet the 1997 works of rocks seem earthbound and impenetrable. Durhams says that these are symbolic of states of mind, but I am uncertain whether they always move into this new area of content. Instead, they often recall the powerful nature abstractions of the Canadian Group of Seven such as Lawren Harris.     But in vertical charcoal Rocks from this year, Durham approaches the monochrome abstraction of Japanese screen painters like Shoshu. And here the complexity of the aggressive shapes does indeed approach the content which she seeks to express; the tangled web of the human mind. Susan M. Wadsworth Humanities Department Fitchburg State College September 1997

BIOGRAPHY OF THE ARTIST         Born: 1945 Plainfield, New Jersey      Education         S.U.N.Y. College at Oneonta – M.S. in Ed. 1991                                         Westchester Art Workshop 1980 – 1981         Art Students League 1971, 1972         Montclair State University – B.A. 1967     Solo Exhibitions         2010         Stanley Center for the Arts, Utica, N.Y. (2 Person)         2001         Cazenovia College (2 Person)         1998         Old Forge Art Center, NY         1997         Herkimer County Community College, NY (Retrospective)         1997         Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst., Troy, NY         1994 & 2004         Mohawk Valley Center for the Arts, Little Falls, NY         1993         Pleiades Gallery, New York, NY         1991         South Shores Arts, Little Falls, NY         1988         S.U.N.Y. Tech Utica, NY         1984         Cambridge Arts Council, Cambridge, MA      Selected Group Exhibitions         Mohawk-Hudson Regional, Albany Institute of         History and Art 1996 (award), 1993         Pleiades Gallery, New York, 1996, 1995         Annual National Exhibition, Cooperstown Art         Association 1997, 1994, 1991         Arts Council of Central New York, Utica, NY 1994         Annual National, The Butler Institute of American  Art 1992         WMHT Exhibition, New York State Museum,  Albany, NY 1988         Art of Northeast USA Silvermine Guild, New  Canaan, CT 1986         National Association of Women Artists, N.Y.C.         Annuals Since 1986 (Meyerwitz Award for an         American Theme, 1991) and NAWA Fl. Exhibits         Copley Society of Boston Members Exhibitions, 1984         Cover: ROCKS, 24 x 30”, oil, ©1997, Jeanette R Durham

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Updated: September 21 2004