TWO OF A KIND
Artists’ similarities in visions, medium made joint exhibition a natural
Ohio artists Melodie Thompson and Trish Weeks have a lot in common.
Although the artists are current residents of the Buckeye State — Thompson lives in Delaware and Weeks in Cincinnati — both are natives of Indiana.
What’s more, their work as painters features considerable overlaps: They share a medium (oils), an impressionistic style and a gift for depicting scenes from the natural world.
The artists’ shared sensibility led Hayley Deeter to pair Thompson and Weeks in a two-person show in her gallery in downtown New Albany, Hayley Gallery, even though they weren't familiar with each other personally.
“Trish and Melodie both paint with passion,” Deeter wrote in an email. “They transform the mundane into beauty and their styles, although different, complement each other so well.”
Thompson said the genesis of the show — "Light and Color Collective," which runs through Jan. 22 — was unusual for her.
“I’ve done dual shows before, but typically I’m putting it together versus someone else pairing us,” Thompson said. “So it is interesting — and I definitely have appreciated Trish’s work over the years.”
Thanks to the careful selections of Deeter, who has long represented each artist, the exhibit demonstrates how deep their artistic affinity goes.
For example, Thompson’s oil-on-canvas “Red Mittens in the Snow” presents two rows of trees bordering an open expanse covered with snow. The evocative title refers to the red leaves that are seen on one group of trees, which effortlessly call to mind the image of a series of comfy red mittens.
Another view of winter is offered in Thompson’s oil-on-cradled-birch “Comfort,” which shows a stream winding through the woods. The exact contours of the stream are obscured by an accumulation of snow on part of its surface, suggesting that the scene’s full splendor will not be in evidence until spring arrives.
Thompson does not confine herself to pictures of rural life. The oil-on-cradled-wood “Indigo Halo” depicts a busy city street in a cold, metallic palette of blues, blacks and grays, while the oil-on-cradledbirch “Nestled” presents the loneliest of sights: At the end of a road cluttered with sludge and snow, Thompson paints a gas station, welllit in the dusk, but — for the time being — seemingly empty and unused by travelers.
Weeks’ paintings display a careful attention to nature. In the oil-on-aluminum “Afternoon in the Sun,” tall, colorful grasses frame a field rendered in golden hues; in the oil-on-aluminum “Meandering,” a waterway courses through what looks to be a marsh.
Although some of Weeks’ works present their subjects with crystal clarity — such as the oil-on-aluminum “Bright Memories,” showing a breezy field on a bright spring day — in others, the artist seems interested in more abstract effects. In one of her best pieces, the oilon-aluminum “Expressing Joy II,” strands of grasses — or is it seaweed? — fill the frame in flowing, freeform lines.
Indeed, the artists’ mutual expression of joy in the world around them proves to be the biggest common point between them.
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