The art of Jill Pottle, shown in the exhibit “Reflections, Patterns, and Light” at Fivesparks, is more provocative—a word Pottle said has been used to describe her work—than it appears to be.
At first I was skeptical about that description. After all, the gallery is filled with realistic paintings of luscious color, intriguing still lifes, and beautiful scenes of nature and life from around New England. Even without looking at the labels you may recognize Great Meadows, the Concord River, Fruitlands, and locations along the Maine coast.
New England farmhouses, barns, and seaside cottages are realistically depicted without looking photographic or sentimental, but they are more perfectly composed and balanced than any scene you’ll actually see in real life, inviting—or provoking—you to try to figure out how Pottle has created this illusion with shapes, lines, and color. You may recognize Root Farm in Concord, yet wonder how this painting came to be so well arranged that the roof lines, the ground, the driveway are so precisely balanced.
The grasses, trees, and moving water of the Concord River weave and flow through shapes and colors, light and dark values, patterns and textures. Pottle says on her website, “The elements I look for in my artwork are in the abstracted areas of the subjects that ultimately describe realism.”
Pottle’s large still life paintings of reflective surfaces of everyday silverware, glassware, metal, and ceramic glazes create an uneasy tension between a desire to soften the edges of the shapes and colors with blending and our excitement in viewing the distinct shapes of color. Pottle’s refusal to soften the scene provokes the viewer to stay alert and wide-eyed.
Some of the still life compositions incorporate striped cloth in the background, creating a vague, almost visceral, feeling that the objects are not quite stationary. When a gallery volunteer asked Pottle how she “dealt with the stripes” in such a complex composition, she explained that the stripes “orchestrate the space.” Moving her arm around the painting, she continued, “For example, the top of this container meets the yellow stripe here, and so on,” an explanation that hinted at the virtuosity required to compose the painting.
And maybe it’s that virtuosity that is provocative, although it is held in check lest it become overwhelming. Pottle explained that the houses, the roads, the scenery, and the household objects are there for the drama, to set the stage. The art is, in fact, pure abstraction.
The show will be at Fivesparks until May 13. An artist reception will take place on Sunday, April 16, from 3 to 5 p.m.
Read what Jill Pottle has to say about her current work at www.pottleart.com.
Oil paintings by Jill Pottle: “2020, Spring, Fruitlands Museum” left, and “Saucers and Coffee Pots,” right. (Courtesy photos)
