CLAREMONT — In 2005, Plainfield artist Brenda Phillips was diagnosed with a neurodegenerative brain disorder that caused memory loss and eroded her ability to speak.
To fortify her memory, she began learning the poetry of William Butler Yeats. She would make paintings inspired by the poems, some of which were exhibited in a retrospective of her work at her home in 2017, the year before she died at age 62.
As her faculties declined, she turned to abstract paintings of natural scenes, a number of which are now on view at River Valley Community College in Claremont.
“For me, the nature abstracts are the end. They are her losing her mind and being less able to do the kind of detailed design stuff she used to be able to do,” Alison Moynihan, Phillips’ daughter, said in a phone interview.
And yet, the paintings are “still gloriously full of her spirit and her color,” added Moynihan, who lives in Keene.
Many of them show tendrils of color exploding across the paintings’ surface to form vibrant patterns. In a few, even the frames are coated in thick lashes of paint, as though the space inside just wouldn’t suffice.
“Brenda Phillips: Nature Abstract” has been in the works for a few years, ever since the college’s gallery manager and project coordinator Eric Sutphin came across her name when he was looking for area artists to show in the newly opened exhibition space.
“I thought (her work) was really powerful, and kind of magical,” Sutphin said.
When he learned that Phillips had died, staging the exhibition seemed even more vital.
“Whenever an artist passes away, it’s a heavy lift to keep that work in the public eye,” he said.
He ultimately decided to hold off on exhibiting Phillips’ work until the gallery was more established.
Then last fall, Moynihan and Sutphin paid a visit to Phillips’ former home in Plainfield, where her art was stored. Phillips’ husband, Ted Moynihan, still owns the couple’s house, though he now lives in Connecticut and rents it out to a few tenants.
Sifting through Phillips’ work, Sutphin was drawn to her abstract nature paintings. There’s “a clarity of vision that runs throughout all of them,” he said.
Each of the 29 paintings in “Nature Abstract” presents some blend of figurative and non-figurative imagery, with some falling more on one side of the spectrum than the other.
But all of the pieces share the same ultra-bright palette and thick strokes of oil paint.
In “Sunset Tree #3,” a cotton-candy-colored sky is mirrored in a small inlet framed by a handful of shrubs. Large kaleidoscopic flowers are connected by stripey tendons of color in “Psychedelic Nature,” and in “Nature Abstract #51,” a yellow sun is surrounded by sturdy flowers and bands of pink, blue, green and red pigment.
There’s an exuberance to the work, but also something more intense, a kind of desperation to get as much onto the surface as possible.
Paint is built up in so many layers that the tableaus appear weighty and solid. The magenta petals in “Flowers in the Field” are so thick that they rise a couple millimeters off the board on which they’re painted, creating a kind of low relief.
The patterns in the more abstract paintings emit a pulsing energy, as if to breach the barrier between art and gallery, and globs of paint form small bumps and ridges.
Phillips even attached a second, smaller frame and a long feather to the woven surface of “Nature Abstract #71,” making the painting push a few more inches into the room.
In “Nature Abstract #82,” glimpses of a collage peek out from underneath the paint, and small seashells pepper the surface of the piece.
Coating collages in paint held a longstanding fascination for Phillips.
She enjoyed blurring the line between two- and three-dimensional artworks. “The fact that I paint into my collage is pushing that question to the audience…,” she told the Valley News in 2001.
In “Nature Abstract,” painting becomes Phillips’ voice. The sound comes in loud and animated, always reaching to say a little more.
“Brenda Phillips: Nature Abstract” is on view at River Valley Community College through May 29 at 1 College Place in Claremont. An opening reception is scheduled for 12 to 1 p.m. on Tuesday, March 3. To learn more, go to rivervalley.edu/gallery.
Winter shows
The Hood Museum of Art is hosting a reception from 5 to 6:30 p.m. on Friday. The event is an opportunity for the public to explore the museum’s exhibitions, learn more about its programming and hear John R. Stomberg, the museum’s director, who will deliver remarks. To learn more go to hoodmuseum.dartmouth.edu/events.
In Newport, a group show featuring work by the winners of the Juried Regional Exhibit opens this Friday at Library Arts Center with a reception from 5 to 7 p.m. The “Selections” show is up through March 20. For more information, go to libraryartscenter.org.
First Friday
In honor of First Friday, a gallery stroll organized by New London’s Center for the Arts is set for 5 to 7 p.m. this Friday. Locations include Blue Loon Bakery, the New London Inn, Tatewell Gallery, the coffee shop Grounds and Center for the Arts’ own gallery, which will be open for the duration of the event. The art crawl is free and open to the public. To learn more, go to centerfortheartsnh.org.