You don't know DODD!

Woods bi L.Dodd Tryptic 18' tall x 4' wide
For an Artist Description dial 207 233 -0300 & enter 6

Do you know Lois Dodd? 
I can share with I didn't know Dodd!

After immersion in the Catching the Light exhibition I can say I now know a little bit about Dodd.  
What I see is that Lois Dodd is that painters painter and so much more, she's a painter for the everyman-woman.  
Perhaps that is what has made her current show at the Portland Museum of Art so popular.  This show follows   the all time best attended show at the PMA Winslow Homer's Weatherbeaten exhibition.  I think it is the  perfect counterpoint to Homers display of the nature vs man conflict theme that dominates Homers canvases.  Lois makes viewing art easy,  by that I mean you don't have to work hard to understand whats going on.  Her works are bright, bold and that lead a an overall comfortable feeling when I viewed her work.  The current exhibit at the Portland Museum of Art is called "Catching the light " and features 50 of her works spanning a lifetime of painting from views out her window in New York city to the natural world viewed from the coast here in Maine.

 Before this show I understood Lois Dodd was one of a group of New York artists the so called "modernist" of the late 20th century.  Along with Alex Katz, Neil Welliver, Rackstraw Downes these New Yorkers would come north in summer to experience a different pace, they wanted to escape the hustle of civilization and capture the tranquility of Maine in paint. As a collective I have come to appreciate and enjoy the art work of this group.


 Lois Dodd paints exactly what presents itself to her, each image like a memory taken from the fold of her brain displayed on giant canvases.    I have a few favorites one is the tryptic. It is a huge, in three parts a stunning effort over 18 feet tall this work puts you there in the woods looking back at house. One of the more enjoyable aspects of this show was the addition of the curator & artists commentary on several of the pieces.  Interviewed and prerecorded these audio files are available by dialing an access phone number and then the corresponding painting access code.   It provided a verbal window and back-story for many of the works. The phone number for the audio guide is 207-228-0300, and the Lois Dodd show is currently numbers 1 through 11. The piece "The Woods" is painting code #6.

Another favorite of mine is "Ice on the Delaware water gap" an event of river block ice and over sized frozen cubes gone wild, this natural spring event in the Delaware water gap between New Jersey and Pennsylvania captured in paint.  The cubist nature of the subject even carries over to influence the format for the painting of the trees... 

"Cow Parsnip"  a jumbo format flower painted on an almost 7 foot wide canvas it made me feel like a bee coming in for sniff and potential landing.
 

The Lois Dodd "Catching the Light " exhibition is at the Portland Museum of Art through April 7th.

  
Why go see Lois Dodd  In the Portland Museum of Art?

   

  Go because,  your good mind needs good art! 

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