The artist Christine Hawkins, whose work is on view at the Library Arts Center in Newport as part of its Juried Regional Exhibit, can name myriad influences on her work, but one of the earliest was that of her father, Donald Rowell.
Rowell was an architect who studied at Harvard under Walter Gropius, one of the founders of the Bauhaus movement in Germany who fled the Nazi regime and eventually made his way to the U.S.
“I loved going into his office and smelling it,” Hawkins said in an interview at her home in Claremont, a stately Federal-era house near the Connecticut River where she lives with her husband, H. Clay Hawkins, six cats, one dog and other farm animals. Her father was, she said, “consumed with order. He really wanted me to keep in mind perspective.”
The spare look of architectural drawing found its way into Hawkins’ oil paintings on canvas and on paper, which show round and oval shapes hovering over, or inserted between, lines that cut across the canvas.
They’re not called landscapes but there’s a suggestion of rivers, roads and fields seen from the air in the way Hawkins has arranged the forms and lines, and in her rich wash of colors.
Here order is not dull or oppressive, but possessed of its own serene logic. If you think of the great California painter Richard Diebenkorn, you wouldn’t be wrong: another influence.
“I’m caught up with structure, and how forms play out in space and color. I don’t know if it’s my training or more of an inward instinct,” Hawkins said.
This gets back to the mysterious process of influence, which isn’t the same thing as mere mimicry. So many elements are in play.
“You actually don’t know when something is influencing your work, but somehow when you’re painting, things come forth,” Hawkins said.
She also cites as inspiration the 19th and 20th century American painters Martin Johnson Heade, James McNeill Whistler and Arthur Dove, as well as the European moderns Henri Matisse, Giorgio Morandi and Paul Klee.
Hawkins was born in Miami, and lived for a time in the suburb of Coconut Grove, where her father did most of his architectural work. Her mother Anne Rowell was from Massachusetts. (Hawkins’ maternal grandparents founded the Richards Free Library in Newport in 1888. The Library Arts Center, which is attached to the Richards Free Library, was once a stable where Hawkins’ grandmother kept a horse.)
Hawkins’ parents divorced when she was 3, and Hawkins then moved with her mother, sister and brother and stepfather to Spokane, Wash., spending the winters there and summers with her father in Florida. Eventually the family came back to New England, settling in Wilton, N.H., when Hawkins was in elementary school.
Hawkins had always been interested in art and graduated from the Boston University School of Visual Arts. In 1969, through a family connection, she met her husband, a Dartmouth graduate who’d grown up down the road from where the couple now live. After they married, they moved to downtown Claremont, where her husband worked at Claremont Savings Bank, which his family had founded in 1902. They have two children, now adult, who were schooled in town.
Hawkins pursued further art lessons with the late Aidron Duckworth, drawing from live models, but realized that she was more interested in abstract shapes than human ones.
She also taught art to children privately in Claremont, and then in the elementary schools in Perkinsville, Cornish and Windsor. She has also offered classes in art history at OSHER at Dartmouth, served on the Visual Arts Coalition in Concord, and is a trustee of the Saint-Gaudens Memorial, an arm of the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site that gets grants and makes purchases for the site. She helps to curate exhibitions in the Atrium of the Claremont Opera House, and is involved with the celebration for Bente Torjusen, the director of AVA Gallery and Art Center in Lebanon, who retires in December.
Hawkins’ lifelong devotion to making, teaching and supporting art stems from her conviction that art is a necessary and instinctive part of life, and fundamental in the education of children.
The arts are “a vehicle for imagination, creativity and joy,” she said.
The work of Christine Hawkins can be seen in the Juried Regional Exhibit at the Library Arts Center in Newport, N.H. through June 16.
As part of First Friday in White River Junction, Scavenger Gallery will hold a wine tasting with Artisanal Cellars from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Still on view, through June 28, are pastels by Laurie Sverdlove in a series called “Cataclysms.”
Jewelry maker Stacy Hopkins, who is the owner of Scavenger, will also hold a pop-up exhibition of her work on Saturday, June 11, at Robert’s Flowers at their new location at 44 South Main St., in Hanover, from 1 to 7 p.m.
The Dodson Studio Group will show portraits of live models at the Local Buzz Coffee Shop at 142 South Main St., in Bradford. There is an opening reception Friday evening from 6 to 8 p.m. The show runs through June 30.
Two Rivers Printmaking Studio has an opening reception Friday from 6 to 8 p.m. for the artist Emily Parrish, whose show “Used to Be” examines her Southern heritage. Parrish grew up in rural North Carolina, and studied art at Appalachian State University and in the San Francisco Bay area.
The show runs until July 31.
They’re not only lawyers! “The VLS Community,” a show of work created by six artists affiliated with Vermont Law School goes on view Tuesday at the Royalton Memorial Library in South Royalton. There will also be a reception for the artists from 4 to 6 p.m. on Saturday, June 18. The show is up through Aug. 13.
Arabella, Windsor. The gallery exhibits works by local artists and artisans in a variety of media including jewelry, oils, acrylics, photography, watercolors, pastels and textiles.
ArtisTree Gallery, South Pomfret. An exhibition of work by local 5th and 6th grade students ends Saturday.
BigTown Gallery, Rochester, Vt. “Director’s Choice,” a show of work by Varujan Boghosian, Ira Matteson, Helen Matteson, Nicholas Santoro, Hugh Townley, John Udvardy, and Pat dipaula Klein, continues through July 9.
Cider Hill Art Gallery and Gardens, Windsor. Gary Milek exhibits egg tempera paintings in the show “Plant Forms” through June.
Converse Free Library, Lyme. The collages of Barbara Newton can be seen through June 30.
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon. Watercolors by Marlene Kramer, digital art by Eric Hasse, photographs by John Rush, oil paintings by Emily Ridgway, and pastels, acrylics and oils by Gail Barton, are on view through June.
Aidron Duckworth Museum, Meriden. An exhibition of paintings by Lucy Mink-Covello ends Sunday. “Color–A Theory in Action,” a show of works by Duckworth runs through July 24.
Great Hall, Springfield, Vt. An exhibition of photographs documenting life in Springfield, taken by students participating in the Springfield Photovoice initiative, continues through July.
Hall Art Foundation, Reading, Vt. “Landscapes After Ruskin: Redefining the Sublime,” curated by photographer Joel Sternfeld, continues through Nov. 27.
Hopkins Center, Dartmouth College. The Senior Major exhibition is on view in both the Jaffe-Friede and Strauss Galleries through June 19.
Howe Library, Hanover. “Paths, Streams and Days of Small Things,” a show of more than 25 pastels and water colors by Lynda Knisley, runs through July 27.
Long River Gallery and Gifts, Lyme. “Paradise Found,” an exhibition of work by Liliana Paradiso, continues through July 4.
Royalton Memorial Library, South Royalton. The exhibition “Louis Sheldon Newton: Architect Extraordinaire of Vermont” ends Saturday.
Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site, Cornish. The park is open for the season through October.
White River Gallery at BALE, South Royalton. The oil paintings of Charlotte, Vt. artist James Vogler are on view through June.
Nicola Smith can be reached at nsmith@vnews.com.