Artist Mary Jane Begin first came to my attention at the 2013 RISD Faculty Biennial when I was transfixed by her “Nautilus Hall” of the My Little Pony franchise. When I saw that she was one of the artists included in the new group show at the Providence Art Club, “The Edge of Light,” I wondered how her vivid palette would integrate with that of other more conventional painters. Quite well as it turns out. Her landscapes look like nothing else in the room but the other artists are not all that conventional.
Ms. Begin, a RISD grad currently teaching in the Illustration Department, is exhibiting in the Maxwell Mays Gallery alongside Lorraine Hynes whose ‘oil on linen’ pieces (seen here on the left) really drew me in. And while her darker palette may seem like the opposite of Begin’s — do they even have asphalt in Ponyville? — perhaps that tiny streak of pink in ‘Asphalt Plant’ reflects the sunset of Begin’s vibrant ‘Day’s End’ on the right. Much of Hynes’s other work is indeed more conventional — when not hanging around asphalt plants she is painting fruit — but there was something about these plums (seen below) that stopped me dead in my tracks. I love these plums!
Photographer Lenny Rumpler has some provocative, timely, and very large pieces, in the side gallery. Gorgeous prints. I am afraid I did not get to the Dodge Gallery. . . yet.
Gallery hours: weekdays, noon to 4pm/ weekends, 2pm to 4pm.
Free and open to the public, through November 8, Providence Art Club, 11 Thomas Street, (directions)
