Art We Love – All the Colors of the Rainbow

There’s a palpable burst of energy coursing through town this week as the season gets underway. And I’ve seen a corresponding explosion of color in the galleries. I guess we’re all longing to live life in full color after the past couple of years, so what better way to kick off the season in Provincetown than with all the colors of the rainbow.

Robin Reynolds, Moving Forward (oil on canvas, 36” x 36”), Cusp Gallery

Luscious Punch is a fitting title for the exhibition of Robin Reynolds’ gorgeous paintings at Cusp Gallery. She paints in her garden, but capturing blooms in perfect detail is not her goal. Instead, the flowers serve as a framework and inspiration. Using both opaque and translucent pigments, she creates lush, moody canvases. There’s a looseness and spontaneity in her brushwork, but there’s rigor in the composition and balance in the riotous symphony of color. An ode to joy indeed.

Hilda Neily, Subtle Changes (oil on canvas, 16” x 20”), Hilda Neily Gallery

Hilda Neily paints in the classic style of the Cape Cod School of Art, which is to say that color is paramount. But color isn’t just about the bold. Here, as the title implies, color is used more subtly but to no less effect. Gorgeous blues and plums predominate, but as you look more closely you discover the turquoise and the ochres in the shadows. Confirmation that color doesn’t have to be loud to make an impact.

Kyle Ringquist, Bee Bounty (acrylic on glass, 48” x 36”), Kyle Ringquist Gallery

A bouquet of flowers is a tried-and-true subject in art, so to make it your own is no mean feat. But Kyle Ringquist has done just that. Not only with his technique (the slightly mind-boggling reverse painting on glass), but also in the balance he achieves between abstraction and realism. The flowers are recognizable as types, but each has its own stylized graphic punch. And for all its appearance as a bunch of blooms casually tossed in a vase, there’s some sophisticated color theory going on here. In the right hands, the subject may be timeless, but it will never get old.

Peter Cameron, Untitled (oil on canvas, 17” x 17”), Julie Heller Gallery

By any objective standard the colors in this painting are unreal. But boy do they work. The blood-red house packs an emotional punch, heightened by the dark blue-violet sky. There’s a cinematic quality to this painting, and Peter Cameron has used color to set the scene. He’s distilled the elements to their essence so that each viewer can fill in the details, and by using a limited but pitch-perfect palate, he’s created a powerful and haunting image.

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George Roders, ptownie Arts Editor