The paintings of Dawn Adams always depict bodies of water–at times vast and broad across an entire horizontal plane and at times traveling circuitously and quietly through marsh reeds. Her imagery is deliberately fixated on water and its surroundings because in her time of crisis, when her teenage son died in an accident, she found some solace in the fluid materiality of water–that it shifted its shape and surface to adapt to its earthly container, that it reflected and refracted the light cast upon it be it a stormy sky, a moonlit night, or a brilliant sunset. Awe-inspiring and bigger than the details of daily life, water offered repose, some kind of peace. The artist paints these waterscapes to elicit a similar peace and contemplation on the part of her viewers.
Each work is created by layering textured strata with translucent hues of oil paint. When viewed closely, the impasto brush strokes are impressionistic and distinct, forming a surface texture that replicates the water’s surface itself. But the works are for the most part large, requiring the viewer to stand back and allow the colors to visually coalesce so that the landscape can wash over them evocatively.
At By Hand the artist will show new waterscapes that expand her terrain that include the depiction of paths through the woodlands adjacent to streams, a rain-filled forest, and reflecting pools. The exhibit will also include a number of smaller, intimate works.