Review: Ellen Granter

I went to the Copley Society art gallery on Newbury St. in Boston yesterday, and I saw Ellen Granter's "On A Wire" and "Painted Turtles" show. The "On A Wire" group of images depicted various birds on solid backgrounds (and the "Painted Turtles" depicted turtles on various solid backgrounds). The backgrounds were highly texturized and used very rich colors.

Her art is great, and it deals a lot with the interplay between a somewhat abstracted background and a detailed foreground (which I am experimenting with). She has a great painterly quality in the way that she renders her paintings. She also does a great job using different color combination: I particularly loved her pieces that used gold paint. The "On A Wire" show was stronger than the "Painted Turtles" show, but I highly recommend seeing both.

The only pieces that I did not think were done well were the images of birds that seemed incomplete. She did a series of paintings in the "On A Wire" where the birds are really subdued in color (some even go do a skin tone color) and detail (no eyes and no feathers), which is disappointing, especially when they are showcased with the stronger images.

Let me know what you think.