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Artworks
Betty Parsons
Maine, 1958Gouache on paper7 1/16 x 5 1/4 in (17.9 x 13.3 cm)
14 5/8 x 12 7/8 x 1 5/8 in framed (37.1 x 32.7 x 4.1 cm framed)BP139Travel, both throughout the United States and internationally, was a central part of Parsons’ life, and she documented her trips in over 200 notebooks and sketchbooks over the course of...Travel, both throughout the United States and internationally, was a central part of Parsons’ life, and she documented her trips in over 200 notebooks and sketchbooks over the course of her life, which contain both sketched and painted compositions made to record her impressions of a given locale. Maine was a regular destination, both to visit friends and later to stay at her own cottage in Sheepscot. Maine (1958) demonstrates the vivid color and expressive gesture with which Parsons worked in the medium of gouache; thickly layering chartreuse and striking red hues in linear forms, Parsons incises the wet pigment in swirling gestural motions to reveal contrasting cooler blue and green tones, which lie beneath. Reflecting on Parsons’ long-term engagement with the sketchbook, writer Lawrence Alloway observed that her practice “rests on a basic assumption of art as life’s running companion. A moment of life equals a painting.”
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