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RUI PIMENTA
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VERONICA PLEWMAN
It was a muddle of a puddle day.
In this collection of paintings for “Primordial Waters”, Veronica Plewman is at play with watery settings – whether puddle, lake, river or pond –allowing her to find a fluid rhythm in a mess of colour. Earth is afoot here. At least Veronica certainly is – in the center and thick of it all. In all of these pieces the artist is away from land’s edge, apparently standing in the water that she is trying to capture in moment and mood. So she has fused herself with these places. The autonomy of water, its shifting complexity, its independence from predictable patterns of human design, releases Veronica’s own freedom.
Having studied under Gordon Smith at UBC in the seventies and then kept close watch of his journey, Veronica knew the fork in the road before she took it. Still, she is a long way down her own path now. The paintings that make up “Primordial Waters” prove that experience. Fiercely styled, with energy rippling each canvas and colour pushing against other colour, Veronica’s work is both personal and worldly. She has rendered these places very knowingly, the wet patches of this west coast setting teem with light and colour and motion. And feeling. There is temper in her brushwork. In “Bridge” she rakes the canvas with red paint, vividly heightening the spirit of a transitional autumn scene. “First Expectations’ bursts with a wave of white light that roils the water. “Deep in Autumn” is muddied and dark with grey light sluicing the water. In this way, these pieces become a weathermap of Veronica’s personal moods.
Yet the work in the show is also a master class in the visual effects of light moving through water, proving both the reflective ability of water and its absorptive features. As a viewer, we are on the surface, above and below it. I think Veronica likes playing with our need to firmly situate ourselves, to figure out how deep the water runs. Bits of colour seem to float on the surface as if scattered leaves. In other places, the sky or surrounding landscape is brought low and perceptively distorted. Elsewhere colours wash together and sink toward darkness. This is all as it should be. The value of looking at water is its inconsistency, its shifting story. Veronica Plewman tells this story with confidence.
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