Cully Renwick: September 2009

Small Songs

These small works are oil on wood panel, with the exception of the final two images, which are mixed media on black paper.

The Wine Dark Sea, 6x9", 2003

Green Wave, 6x9", 2003

Squall, 6x9", 2003

Dolphin Cloud, 6x9", 2003

Arch, 6x9", 2003

About Tuscany, 6x9". 2003

Spring Grass Fires, 6x9", 2003

Night Sea, 6x11", 2003

Moolit Cloud Bank, 6x11", 2003

Pale Moon on the Levee, 6x11", 2003

Dust Storm, 6x11", 2003

On the Dunes, 6x9", 2003

High Butte, 6x9", 2003

Wing in Water, 8x11", 2003

Water Bears, 8x11", 2003

This is a collection of pieces that I feel show the cultural influences of growing up in the American Midwest in a first generation Irish and Norwegian family. Several of the paintings were begun in the late sixties when I lived in Toronto. I kept a small studio in Markham Village, and was represented by Gallery Moos on Yorkville Avenue. When my husband and I left for UCLA, I took a roll of unfinished canvases with me, knowing that I'd complete them when life got back to normal. My husband's PhD, three children, and a long, interesting working life in environmental assessment allowed only sporadic attempts at painting, and I didn't really get my chance until the hot Texas summer of 2000. This collection includes those completed canvases, some contemporary work, and a few from the years between.

The Bear and the Girls, x , oil on canvas, 1986

Picnic at White Egret Falls, 40x54", oil on canvas, 2000

Night Racing, 24 x 34", oil on canvas, 2002

Elk at the Garden Gate, 36x39", oil on canvas, 2001

Coming to Town, 40x26", oil and mixed media on Yupo, 2002

Mourning the Kursk, 46x61", oil on canvas, 2000

Fjord Wedding, 34x62", oil on canvas, 2002

The Journey, 55x32", oil on canvas, 2001

A House God, 68x45", oil on canvas, 2002

Walking the Highlands, 26x20", oil on Yupo, 2003

Bluebird, 40x26", oil on Yupo, 2002

The Farmers, 40 x 26" oil on Yupo, 2002

Jungle Ruins, 20x26", oil on Yupo, 2003

Detail, The Bear and the Girls, oil on canvas, 1986

Love at the Top of the World, 62x34", oil on canvas, 1996

Cleo and the Cosmos, 41x57", oil on canvas, 2001

Covering the News

During the winter 2004-5 I found myself drawn to newspaper photos. The images spoke of politics at home and in foreign places, of need and rescue, of everyday pleasures and heroic moments, each one so specific we can see ourselves there. I'd never worked from news stories before, but by summer I began to think of that pile of clippings as a spring board to my own work. As I studied each photo I often found it calling for more than one version of the "story", since the act of painting can open resonances in ones thinking, spatially (rearrangement of elements and relationships) and linearly (other ways to speak of the story content). In the end there were more than twenty-four 10x10" oil paintings on wood panels. These are a few of them.

The Patrons, 10x10", 2005

Lone Sentry, 10x10", 2005

Lonely Outpost, 10x10", 2005

On a Winter Day, 10x10", 2005

Rescue Attempt, 10x10", 2005

Together, 10x10", 2005

Boys Need a Home, 10x10, 2005

Songwriter, 10x10", 2005

Rumsfeld and Karzai, 10x10", 2005

The Rowing Team, 10x10", 2005

Trooper in Starbucks, 10x10", 2005

Polar Fundraiser, 10x10" 2005

First Jumper, 10x10", 2005

.Waiting to Vote in Zimbabwe, 10x10", 2005

The Peace Sign, 10x10, 2005

Coffee Trees

This series was created during the winter of 2009.

I'd like to tell you how this run began. It was a coincidence back in January that a picture formed in my almost empty coffee cup. I snapped a photo because I loved the image I saw there, like winter trees in a morning sky. When I started painting weeks later, I remembered the way the grounds were separated by tiny rivulets of water, and I spent some happy days trying to make oil paint, terp, and stray materials flow in ways that evoked trees, lichens, and winter vegetation. I began to include pieces of mistletoe and other plants in the printing as well as stray studio items. Browns turned to greens as my thoughts turned to spring.

They are all oil paint on Yupo in a spectrum from brush strokes and poured paint to monotypes.