Detail of “Mud Time”, 1960 by Joan Mitchell

JOAN MITCHELL: ARTISTIC VISION LIKE NO OTHER

This past August I was awarded an artist grant to travel to the Baltimore Museum of Art to see the retrospective exhibition on Joan Mitchell, a first-generation abstract expressionist (1925-1992).

This exhibition provided me an opportunity to see works by Joan Mitchell in person for the first time. Seeing 70 important pieces by Mitchell helped me understand her subject matter, sources, and technique more clearly, as well as seeing the way her work developed and changed over time.

I gasped as I went through the show! All of it was mind-blowing, the enormous size of her paintings combined with her layered spectrum of colors, beautiful muddy hues within the harmony of white fields. The rhythm and energy in her brush strokes create a perfect balance of texture in each composition. Some of her paintings were on a single canvas, while others were diptychs, triptychs, and quadriptychs complimenting perfectly with one another. Her paintings are like no others, truly transportive drawing you in with the depths and layering of colors.

I came away energized with so many new and interesting avenues to explore. Back in my studio, I began to translate my process onto larger or multiple canvases and explore new color combinations with the beautiful effects of adding Mitchell’s “mud color”.

Paintings from the retrospective exhibition by Joan Mitchell.