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Connie Connally
Cobalt Migration Blackland Prairie Abstract Expressionism Texas Artist Framed

2019

About the Item

Cobalt Migration Creation Date: 2019 Medium: Oil on Canvas Size: 36 x 36 in Framed Size: 37.5 x 37.5 x 2 in All the botanicals in this series are Texas wildflowers found all over the state, but especially focused on the "Blackland Prairie" that used to blanket the TEXAS prairies from the Red River south to San Antonio. Wilderness Playground: a painted history of the rich landscapes and botanical wonders of the Blackland Prairies of Texas; exploring the transience of its' nature. Each painted botanical portrait affirms the present and forecasts its' passing. Like the fragrant bloom whose scent is swept away with the wind…we equally celebrate and mourn at the brevity. I encourage people to engage and be amazed at the natural world. The original prairie is a diverse unplowed ecosystem of mainly native grasses and flowering plants (forbs). The type of prairie called Blackland once stretched from the Red River to the Gulf Coast. The bands of dark alkaline clays grow especially robust stands of tallgrass prairie grasses such as big and little bluestem, Indian Grass, switchgrass, and sideoats grama. These prairies, once home to herds of buffalo, provide habitat for a rich diversity of birds and animals. According to Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, less than 1% of the original blackland prairie remains, lost forever due to development, row-crop agriculture, and overgrazing. It is one of the most endangered ecosystems in the U.S. The vestiges are in public and private hands, with some of the acreage in need of being rehabilitated. The blackland prairie is a part of our history and the landscape of our pioneer heritage. It is the original unchanged land that the ancestors of our community walked upon. We must cherish and preserve our living history for generations to come. Thomas Nozkowski, the prominent NY, American abstract painter, said of Connally's works when he was her art advisor at SMU, "her 'nature abstractions' make the modest into something ambitious and it is her commitment to honor the continuous variability of her experience in nature. Each painting arises from that original experience and she keeps the painting open so anything can happen, while staying true to the original experience." Connie Connally paints stunning canvases of complex elegance, with imagery that merges harmoniously and nearly completely both representational reference and powerful abstraction. Connally’s poetic colorscapes, with their expressive brushwork, sweeping gestural marks and animated cadence, reflect the artist’s passion for distilling the essence of her observations of nature and situate her work as the vital interplay between memory and imagination. Her palette of organic color and calligraphic brush stroke combine to serve as imprint of the artist’s profound love of being in nature and the desire that her painting reflect both her exterior and interior experience of it. Citing Joan Mitchell as an important influence on her work, Connally employs exuberant, impassioned colors laid on her canvases in a pictorial strategy that teeters between the action painting of her abstract expressionist forebears and a more refined personal style that modulates the strokes and dabs that comprise her surfaces. Her layers of brushstroke read less as agitated ruptures and more like intuitive, sensual experiences rendered as prismatic atmospheres of color and tone. Rich, multi-layered surfaces of color morph, coalesce and scatter in quietly energetic rhythms that evoke the experience of being surrounded by nature. Peter Frank, LA Art Critic, writes: "Connie Connally works most clearly with what we recognize as gestural abstraction, associated with Abstract Expressionism. Connally has focused, however, on a notable subset of such gestural painting, one recognized in the heyday of Action Painting and even cited then to Abstract Expressionism with vital precedents (e.g. the late Impressionism of Monet, the early abstractions of Kandinsky). Like such precedents, Connally distinguishes herself as, in essence, a landscape painter, albeit one who paints the landscape she feels as much as she paints the one she sees. Indeed, Connally’s stress on sensuous form and color experience through reference to natural phenomena (in particular vegetation and water, normally in motion) places itself squarely in a tradition particular to the American experience. John Marin’s expansive rhapsodies on the local landscape exemplify this tradition, as does Joan Mitchell’s gradual – but ultimately thorough – adoption of landscape qualities and references. This sort of “plein air abstraction” defines Connally’s work, but her particular touch and palette, and her close and vibrant sense of atmosphere, distinguishes it." Connally's work has been exhibited extensively across the United States and is included in museum and private collections internationally including The Grace Museum, Longview Museum of Fine Art, San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, The Art Museum of South Texas and Southern Methodist University.
  • Creator:
    Connie Connally (American)
  • Creation Year:
    2019
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 36 in (91.44 cm)Width: 36 in (91.44 cm)Depth: 2 in (5.08 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Houston, TX
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU1405214372132
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