Theme & Variations
Our First Brightpoint Show

July 22-August 20, 2022
Flynn-Chapman Gallery

Work From Brightpoint Spring 2022 Semester Advanced Watercolor Classes

Featuring: Mary Early, Elaine Harris, Hannah Jones, Roni Kingsley, Susan Moncure, Sallie Lupton Rugg, Janet Scagnelli, and Clare van Loenen

Mary Early

I often feel weighed down by the expectations and mindset that are intertwined with fine art. I find myself looking to the past for inspiration, specifically the period of my life where my passion for art and creating began to blossom. During this time, I was a child who did not care what others thought of me or my art, I simply did what made me happy. Through this body of work, I aim to capture these sentiments once more by reflecting on the internet subculture that I was a part of during this time of my life, called “sparkle dogs”. These creatures were created by combining the bright and colorful aesthetics of the late 90s and 2000s, the influence of Japanese media and “kawaii” aesthetics, fantasy elements, as well as “scene” and “emo” fashion. These elements, when placed onto quadrupeds like wolves, cats, dogs, and other fantasy creatures, create bright, unapologetic, and irrational designs that exist only to satisfy those who made them. These paintings represent my effort to channel and reflect on my artistic roots, what they stand for, and the influence they have on my work to this day. While letting go of others expectations and the unnecessary constraints I place on myself when making art.

Elaine Harris

Color is primary to my work - it is my starting point and what guides me.  I want to make colors sing!  My approach is open ended, relying on intuitive prompts to guide decisions.  I am drawn to surprises and the unexpected  - I enjoy getting lost in the process.

The paintings in this show are an exploration of pentimento, visible trace of earlier paintings beneath a layer or layers of paint.  

Hannah Jones

Wild Blooms is a series of floral watercolor abstractions painted by artist Hannah Jones in spring of 2022. Blooms explores expansion and joy as the artist illustrates strength through movement in darkness and stagnation, like flowers dancing toward the sun for growth. Intuition, trust and acceptance were the emotions Hannah relied on for inspiration to create the series. Bright greens and purples recall fond memories of her maternal grandmother Helen who grew irises when Hannah was young and ran wild through her gardens. A self described late bloomer, the artist hopes to inspire feelings of growth, playfulness, and courage to bloom wildly and colorfully even in the face of struggle.

“So struggle, for struggle is life’s flower, the fertile flower of life” 
— Osugi Sakae, August 1913 

Roni Kingsley

This work is an expression of familial love and connection to people both living and deceased. These paintings are of people I know, have known, and who I have never met. I have permeated each of these paintings with the love I have personally experienced, learned about through stories and witnessed in photographs. Each person in each painting is sharing a story with me at that moment. Some have secrets I will never know. I trust the process of watercolor on paper to allow these loved ones to express themselves. I talk to each person as I paint them and ultimately reach a point of authentic emotional connection. I have been personally touched through this process.

Susan Moncure

Awareness—pay attention to what I notice in the present moment. Listen to inner guidance.  Translate that to the medium of paint. Then, take note of the altered perception. And let go of what I thought it was…  Do it again.

Sallie Lupton Rugg

Lately I'm trying to approach painting differently by not working from photographs or penciling in the subject and then coloring it.

Instead, I wet a segment of the page with the shape of what I want to create, then go in with a brush loaded with pigment.  Exciting things happen, more in the nature of what I want painting to be, something that surprises me.  I get faces of people I've never met, areas with unfinished edges, and freedom from rendering exact detail, because the lack of it better expresses the spirit of the subject.

Janet Scagnelli

I need a safe space where my family, friends and I dwell. From here we work at keeping the encroaching invasives from coming in around our edges.

Clare van Loenen

After three years of not traveling because of the Covid-19 Pandemic I drove in to Canada to visit family. I made a stop at Niagara Falls. The churning water, icy mist and turquoise depths of the Falls held such huge power and immense calm. I found it hard to look away. This boundary is nature’s first and ours second. In making these four works it took me time to realize that I needed to paint out from the white of the churn, and into the deep water.