CORNWALL, Conn.—The Cornwall Library will present an exhibition by celebrated process-oriented artist Don Bracken from Saturday, March 7, through Saturday, April 25.
“Process-oriented” means that the artist follows a three-step process: “discovering” materials in the world—vines and sand from the landscape being depicted; combining those materials in the studio in unexpected relationships; and shaping them into the artwork.
Bracken said he came to the process in 2007. “I was plein air painting with acrylics on canvas out on a farm in Weathersfield and I felt disconnected from what I was doing, and like…who needs another idealized landscape? So, out of frustration, I started mixing the soil from the farm with acrylic medium and suddenly I felt this visceral connection with the land.”
Going forward, he began to paint landscapes using soil from the Connecticut River Valley farms he was painting. The paintings became not just about the earth, but of the earth. As his relationship with materials evolved, he started using limestone, sand, vines, and other natural materials to create textural, three-dimensional landscape paintings emerging from their own organic materials.
He still produces acrylic paintings, but his website also displays “ash paintings,” “clay paintings,” and “dirt paintings.”
Since 2010, he has created many of his landscapes with his own clay-polymer formula. Rather than remaining static on the canvas, the mixtures crack, shrink and elevate as they dry—a living medium that allows nature to have a role as a collaborator in resulting paintings.
Based in Cornwall since the early 1980s, Bracken grew up in San Francisco and graduated from UC Berkeley. He came to the East Coast where he had a studio on the 91st floor of the World Trade Center, as an artist in residence. He has received many awards, and his pieces are in numerous American and international collections.
The library is located at 30 Pine St. For more information, call 860-672-6874.
