ERIN BERRETT, Side Car, 30″ x 40,” Oil on Canvas, Unframed and signed, Listed price: $4,800, Williams Fine Art Gallery
As we approach Memorial Day weekend and experience the final weeks of school, thoughts of summer appear. Warmer weather leads to desires to travel or simply drive without a specific destination. Erin Berrett’s Side Car seems the perfect way to usher in any travel plans for the long weekend and seems the perfect representation of carefree cruising. Berrett, a local still life artist, attempts to capture the emotional presence of her subjects as well as the physical presence. Her images vary from books to candy to empty Coke cans. Gallery owner, Tom Alder, claims in Art Collector Magazine that “Berrett has forged these otherwise inanimate objects into our minds as necessary items needed to function in the 21st century.”
Berrett utilizes thickly applied strokes that merge into a representational whole upon stepping back from the painting, and this adds an Impressionistic immediacy and dynamism. The work almost glitters. It’s as if the motorcycle is just waiting for us to hop in and take a ride. Think about your own preconceived notions about motorcycles. What do they represent to you? Why is the presence of a side car important? What story do you envision?
For Art History and Humanities Students:
Consider various works that represent means of transportation. Impressionist paintings of trains may provide an interesting comparison. Does the artist bestow an almost heroic status on the transportation and represent it as the sole subject? What affect does this have on the viewers’ perception? Do people appear? How do they affect our appreciation of the work? In what different ways do artists depict transportation, and how do these differences reflect cultural, societal, or artistic values at the time? For example, in continuing with our Impressionism reference, consider the impact that trains had on society at the time.
For Visual Arts Students:
In any media, create an image of a means of transportation. Don’t immediately pick the obvious…. Think about all possibilities from our own two feet to horses to jumbo jets. Be sure to make the method of transport the sole subject. Give it heroic status. Think about manipulating perspective, light and shadow, color, texture, etc. to achieve this effect. Share your work with a classmate. What connotations does he/she experience in looking at the work? Did you achieve your objective?
To learn more about Erin Berrett and about other works available from Williams Fine Art, refer to: http://www.williamsfineart.com/#!berrett_erin/c16zu.
