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Creative precision
Hopping between detail and abstraction with painter Eleanor Aldrich
By Bryce Propheter
Published on 01/15/2009
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For some, continuing the family business means taking over their parents’ commercial enterprise. For Eleanor Aldrich it means doing something she loves.
“My parents are both artists,” says Aldrich. “My dad is a liturgical artist and my mom teaches art.”
It is her parents’ passion for art that inspired her to try her own hand at it. Her medium of choice is oil and her paintings most often include human figures.
“I can’t not paint,” explains Aldrich. “I really love the result. Every time I make a painting that I see something in I want to make another one.”
Aldrich is currently featured at Beaver Street Gallery. The pieces on display showcase both Aldrich’s amazing eye for detail and technical painting, as well as her ability to create interest in such mundane things as plastic Ziploc bags. The size of the images in the show are as varied as the compositions and range from a couple of inches wide to several feet.
“Eleanor is one of our Emerging Artists. We like to do a certain number of shows each year with younger artists or students, and we liked Eleanor’s work from the first time we saw it,” says gallery manager Barbara Harton.
Aldrich didn’t start college with a career in art on her mind, but after taking a drawing class she decided to change her major. The move paid off. During her senior year at Northern Arizona University, she was awarded a scholarship that allowed her to study in Holland where she was forced to defend and refine her work. And it was in Holland that her smaller sketches were created—a result of the expense of shipping things back home. One small piece was created by a kind of mistake while she was in Holland.
“I was in a drawing class and I only had this little scrap of canvas because I was running low on raw materials,” says Aldrich. “So the model would change poses and I just kept overlaying each pose.” The result is one of Aldrich’s favorites.
The exhibit also features several large-scale oil paintings. “Preserving the Essence of Summer” includes the upper portion of a figure sprawled on grass with three plastic Ziploc bags, each containing one of the primary colors. Although the bags do play a role in the composition of the piece, Aldrich admits they exist primarily for her own enjoyment.
“I love painting plastics. And if you look at them, they are their own abstract paintings within the painting,” Aldrich says.
Two other similar pieces flank “Preserving.” The exquisite detail of the larger paintings highlights Aldrich’s ability to translate what her eye sees into precise brushstrokes. Each vein, hair and strand of grass is depicted in perfect shape and color.
“I’ve always liked drawing the figure since I was young, and when you have a model that poses for you it’s much easier,” says Aldrich. “And I love doing veins and little hairs.”
This nearly photographic detail stands in stark opposition to the vast areas of negative space—and yet the two work together to create balance.
In “Composition,” a figure reclines on his back staring out at the vast world around him and, according to Aldrich, attempting to determine what deserves to be included in the work.
“It’s called ‘Composition’ because it’s kind of like you have this whole world to paint and what should you paint and why? Or should you just paint and not worry about it?” says Aldrich. This thought is echoed by the small, blank canvas glued on the top of the painting.
Perhaps the most intriguing part of the show is the cake-like pieces scattered throughout. Aldrich uses oil paints on panel to create artwork that mimics and pokes fun of those “creepy photo cakes.”
“One day I was playing with a palette knife on the paint and I thought it reminded me of icing,” explains Aldrich. “So I bought one of those icing pipers.”
Two of the cakes are paintings of old family photos, while Aldrich uses more recent ones to explore the idea of self-indulgence. “A Cake for Excess,” for instance, is a self portrait of Aldrich drinking directly from a gallon milk jug. The piece won a merit award at a recent juried exhibition in California titled “Bold Expressions.”
Aldrich was also awarded the Audubon Award at a juried exhibition in New York City for her oil painting “Umber Figure Mass 1.” Aldrich has since filled her time teaching drawing at NAU and is currently applying to graduate schools.
Eleanor Aldrich’s paintings will be on display until Sat, Jan. 31 in the Delta Space at the Beaver Street Gallery, 28 S. Beaver, 214-0408. For more information, visit www.beaverstreetgallery.com or www.eleanoraldrich.com.
Additional photos for this story:
"Rachel"
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"Umber Figure Mass 1"
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"Illusion in the Time of Connections"
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"Preserving the Essence of Summer"
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