If a female artist is a flowering shrub, perhaps a male artist is a tree whose timber remains a source of strength long after death. These thoughts passed through my mind as I explored exhibits of work by two artists who were colleagues 35 years ago; the younger, still vibrantly creative; the senior of them, long since passed, but whose work continues to amaze with its profound strength.
In 1989, artists Maggie Wilder and Guy Anderson posed together in a photo of the “Barn Show” group exhibit in La Conner. This month, Wilder’s latest creations are at Perry and Carlson Gallery in Mount Vernon. Coincidentally, a trove of seldom-seen work by Anderson has surfaced at I.E. Gallery in Edison. Clayton James, also in the “Barn Show,” posed for a life-sized drawing by Anderson, which you’ll see in the Edison show. Wilder cared for James during his last years and inherited his home.
In “Be-Holding and Being Held,” Wilder carries on the Northwest tradition with her dreamlike oil-on-canvas creature portraits and images of seascapes in heavy weather. You can almost feel the wind in her spooky triptych, “Prevailing” — there’s the sand, a stretch of rough water and a vision of blowing trees, all imagined in muted shades of tan and azure.
Another triptych, “Be Yondering,” is even more spooky, with islands and fog, driftwood and trees. It led me to remark that I had been to that place, myself — occasioning Wilder’s laughing reply, “It must have been in your dreams because I made it up!”
Guy Anderson’s woodblock prints are varied and delightful. “Haida Night Journey” is an inspired abstract looping of scratched lines, which are both engaging and mysterious. (Photo by Stephen Hunter)
Wilder gives viewers portraits of shells in “Old Ones” and owls in “Cascade.” Because she’s lived her life on the edge of land, water and islands, Wilder can recall such haunting landscapes. She reveals her feelings in “Beckoned,” a glimpse of rocks and an island only big enough to hold a pair of trees.
“Standing” works equally well on the level of abstraction or as a portrait of trees, fog and water. “Lift” evokes the mirage of a silver watercourse under a sky plagued by several wisps of cloud in torment.
“Two Stones Singing” is aptly named. The rocks appear to lean toward each other across an unbridgeable gulf of tormented surf, under a lowering sky. The story continues in the dreamlike, grand tryptic, “Ambi Valence.”
Anderson was one of the four Skagit artists brought to national attention in 1953 by an article in Life magazine entitled “Mystic Painters of the Northwest” — their “mystic” quality arising from an ability to portray ordinary objects as containing a higher meaning.
Anderson’s life drawing of James (graphite on paper) is offered for $16,000 at I.E. Gallery. Anderson captures personality with a few graceful lines in several media. I enjoyed studying his “Standing Dancer Reading” (1980, charcoal on heavy paper) and “Man Reading Newspaper” (ink and charcoal on paper). “Seated Man” (1982, ink and watercolor on paper) is a full-blown masterpiece in a medium that allows for no mistakes.
Guy Anderson’s oil painting, “Sleeping by the River,” fills the north wall at I.E. Gallery. In the work, a nude male reclines above great loops of white current. It’s a theme to which the late artist returned to often in his work. (Photo by Stephen Hunter)
Also at I.E. are his restful, minimalist line drawings of cows —“Guernsey Ballet” and “What the Hay?” (each ink on paper). Anderson’s impression of a leopard and — separately — a lioness, probably not done from life, lack conviction.
Anderson’s woodblock prints are varied and delightful. A small, untitled abstraction suggests envelopment. “Double Lioness 1” is puzzling and phallic. I found “Haida Night Journey” (woodblock print) an inspired abstract looping of scratched lines, to be engaging and mysterious.
You can’t miss the oil painting which fills the north wall, floor to ceiling — “Sleeping by the River” (oil on heavy paper) — a theme to which he returned over and over, in even larger dimensions: A nude male reclines above great loops of white current. Psychoanalysts would likely have a field day with this one. It can be yours for only $90,000.
Margy Lavelle, I.E. Gallery’s owner, promises to display more and larger works by Anderson when she can find a venue tall enough — and a big enough rental van.
Maggie Wilder’s “Be-Holding and Being Held” exhibit shows from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m daily through April 30 in Mount Vernon at Perry and Carlson Gallery, 504 South First St. Works by Guy Anderson can be viewed from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays through Sundays (or by appointment) through April 30 in Edison at I.E. Gallery, 5800 Cains Court. Info: perryandcarlson.com, ieedison.com.
