Many years of work by Emily Mason, an abstract painter who splits her time between southern Vermont and New York City, is the focus of a retrospective show going on now at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center.
Mason begins each new painting without an idea exactly where she is heading. Instead, she says she reacts to the movement of paint across canvas and tries not to predict what the final image will eventually become.
鈥淚 like a painting to take me to a place I haven鈥檛 been,鈥� she said during a recent interview in her studio in New York. 鈥淵ou know, I don鈥檛 want to know anything that鈥檚 preconceived. I think that holds you up, or back.鈥�
The current exhibit in Brattleboro That title honors Mason鈥檚 idea that each painting opens up a new opportunity to move toward that other place.
In Mason鈥檚 paintings there are no sharp lines between the colors. The pigments meet or give way to each other. There鈥檚 contrast and there鈥檚 unison sometimes within the same area and among the same colors in a painting.
She says in the dripping and blotting and application of the paint, forms and ideas arise.
鈥淭he place to try to go to is to zone out, to get your mind out of the way kind of, so that you really touch something deeper inside of you,鈥� Mason said. 鈥淎nd you鈥檙e not trying to do something 鈥� either copy yourself, or do somebody else鈥檚 rules or something. You want to sort of get rid of all that, things that inhibit your process.鈥�
"I like a painting to take me to a place I haven't been. You know, I don't want to know anything that's preconceived." 鈥� Emily Mason, abstract artist
The paintings in this show span Mason鈥檚 60-year career, and it includes some from the late 1950s when Mason was living in Europe on a Fulbright grant.
She purchased a house in West Brattleboro in 1968, and she says today Vermont is her inspiration and the place where she can work free of distractions.
Her studio is in an old barn that opens up into the woods. And from the time she arrives in late spring, she says, the trees and plants are in constant motion 鈥� growing and changing, in form and in color.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a factor of nature that鈥檚 Vermont,鈥� Mason said. 鈥淎nd I was thinking about this this morning, if I could stress how important Vermont is for me. It鈥檚 just, one of those 鈥� it sustains, in a beautiful way.鈥�
Mason鈥檚 paintings take up about two-thirds of the museum in Brattleboro right now. The largest works are about four-and-a-half feet high.
There are no edges on these paintings: The paint gobbles up the whole canvas, and from across the museum, the colors from the larger paintings radiate outward.
And the paintings themselves have that movement that Mason talks about when she鈥檚 creating a singular piece.
鈥淚 can see changes. And I can see moves I made early on that I wouldn鈥檛 make now,鈥� Mason says about the show. 鈥淎nd for me I had never really put things together, because when you have a show 鈥� like I have coming up in January 鈥� it鈥檚 sort of what you鈥檙e doing now, but it doesn鈥檛 show you the journey.鈥�
The Emily Mason exhibit will be up at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center through Feb. 10.
