New Work by Rebecca Davenport at The Charles Street Gallery
"I want this show to be cheery," explained Rebecca Davenport in her studio in historic downtown Beaufort. She has not had a solo show in Beaufort in seven years; in November, from Friday the 20th through December 12th, it is her intention to introduce herself "to all the new people in town. I'm going back to my original images—" in fact, back to a 1974 show at the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk, "— from when I first painted, a realistic style. Then I was painting people my age, and I still am thirty years later! Triad is from a photo that my brother took at a wedding in Virginia, but it's very universal, it could be anywhere— three women having the time of their lives, and telling stories. I don't call these paintings "portraits," they have to stand on their own as a painting. I don't want people to ask 'who are they?' Because, as a viewer, you bring your own associations, that's the added dimension. In the gallery, I won't always be there to explain The Smoker. Who is he to you?"
Davenport graduated with a BFA from Pratt Institute and an MFA from the University of North Carolina. She has been painting professionally for the past thirty years. Her paintings are in many private and public collections, including the National Museum of American Art, the Corcoran Gallery, and the National Museum of Women in the Arts.{mosimage}
"Davenport provides an extended double take beneath the mask of the ordinary," commented the prestigious Art in America Magazine. "She has assumed a much less comfortable expression at once powerful, unexpected and strange."
Rebecca's comments about her own process are less mysterious, and more comforting: “I constantly use books about anatomy, and I look at Dürer a lot. Sometimes the photos I refer to don’t have enough definition; in that case I’ll use my own hands or look for photos with similar poses. I’ve taken photos of mules, and in the study for this particular painting that will be in the show, the mule’s ears were back, which means he’s angry, so I turned them around according to another photo. I like to look at the Old Masters too, all the muscles and horses."
Rebecca's show is from November 20-December 12, the opening reception with the artist is on Friday, November 20th, 5:30-9pm, at 914 Charles Street in Beaufort. Charles Street Gallery is an established source for Lowcountry and international art, presented within a carefully renovated house surrounded by a lush garden in the middle of Beaufort's historic district: 843-521-9054, www.thecharlesstreetgallery.com.
