Previous Solo Exhibitions

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Sharing the Harvest

by Andrew Webster

Internationally celebrated painter Mary Pettis has once again teamed up with the Minnesota Orchestra for an unforgettable visual and audible experience this Fall. Following Pettis’ impressive exhibition “Beyond the Surface” in June 2017 and “Color Harmonies” in March 2018, the artist will showcase her newest oils among a carefully curated selection of fifteen other pictures.

Hosted in downtown Minneapolis at Orchestra Hall, the exhibition will be presented during the performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 as well as Kevin Puts’ “Inspiring Beethoven” November 15-17, 2018. Like her previous showings with the Minnesota Orchestra, Pettis has created signature paintings that are thematically linked to the show, which seeks to highlight how artists continue to influence one another across mediums and generations.

“I am often overwhelmed by the dialogue I have with the paintings of so many artists who have preceded me—the Hudson River School, the American Impressionists, the Russian and Western European landscapists, and the Classical Realists,” Pettis says, “The thread of their influences continuously informs me when I paint.” For this exhibition, the artist has chosen to focus on her love for nature and, more specifically, the Fall season. “In September and October, I just love the fog and mists that rise in the morning,” Pettis continued, “and there’s this wonderful resurgence of moisture and atmosphere. Growing up on a farm in southern Minnesota, there was always this deep connection with the land, especially during harvest.”

Russian artists Aleksei Gritsai (1914-1998), Isaac Levitan (1860-1900), and Vasily Polenov (1844-1927) were particularly skilled in using mood as content and continue to impact Pettis’ art today. “When you look closely at my recent work, I’m seeking to use mood as content and metaphor as content, even though I’m still wrapping it around my representational and classical roots,” Pettis continued. “I feel like I’m in the ‘harvest’ phase of my life and career, so the Fall season is functioning metaphorically for me as well. I’ve been painting for forty-five years professionally and the last few Fall seasons, especially this year, I’m feeling more compelled than ever to bring together all my knowledge, education, and influences to create the paintings I know I want to create. I have a clear vision right now and these paintings are a
culmination of this career evolution.”

One may notice the moodiness of Pettis’ recent works through her palette, which is very tight in value and contrast. “You can have a beautiful melody in just an octave-and-a-half,” Pettis says, “you don’t always need to use the high- and low-key values.” Indeed, the artist’s mastery of color, value, line, and texture are on full display in “Road to the Sea”. At first glance, the viewer discovers a simple landscape composition that, upon closer inspection, reveals a world of subtle details. Welcoming the viewer into the scene is a dirt road, which recedes into the distance towards the sea. The road ends at an important intersection of several elements in the composition, including strong horizontal lines from the cliffs on the right side of the canvas and the horizon line itself. “All of the lines, including the vertical road, lead us to the tree,” Pettis suggested, “and the tree alone points to the truth: a patch of light in the sky. There’s a lovely triangular progression from road, to tree, to sky, to cliffs, and back to the tree.”

With a low horizon line, Pettis has placed equal importance on sky and land, each with its own unique color scheme. Through the sky, one finds a gorgeous array of blues, greys, purples, pinks, and whites. The softness and lack of definition creates a calming atmosphere that pervades the entire picture. Below, one finds warmer flashes of yellow and orange amidst a range of earthy greens and browns, all handled with an expressive brush. “I really wanted to translate a feeling into a visual experience,” Pettis continued, “Our daughter lives in Scotland, and we visited and took a hike from Stonehaven towards Dunnottar Castle. I was so struck by the experience—the contemplative nature of the environment, the simple color scheme, but with ribbons of yellow from the gorse bloom. Memory training has been a passion of mine and this painting was what I remembered from that hike visually and, more importantly, emotionally.”

“Placido (Calm and Peaceful)” is yet another masterful display from Pettis, which presents the viewer with a tightly-cropped scene of water lilies. Immediately one perceives the serenity of the composition; its stability established by reflections of blue from the sky, which forms a large upside down “T” shape. Dancing in a circular progression across this foundation are a series of pads and flowers—which display different stages of bloom. Whether it be the highlights of white, subtle notes of red and gold, or the pointing reed stalks, each element has been orchestrated together beautifully to guide one around the painting. “I really love the gradual, almost unperceivable transition between the reflection of the blue sky and surface of the water” Pettis describes. “For me it begs the question ‘Where does the sky reflection end?’ and ‘What is real?’ and I start to daydream about these connections to the natural world and my place within it all. It’s like our little frog in the bottom corner; what he is seeing is completely different from us.”

“I only paint what I feel,” Pettis concluded, “and landscape is the vehicle I use to highlight our shared humanity. I want my viewers to understand that there’s so much more to paintings often labeled as simply ‘pretty pictures’—to encourage and challenge them to look beyond their initial impressions of the piece and notice the universe within them. Art is a visual language; one only needs to open themselves and take a leap of faith to understand it.” 

Orchestra Hall, Minneapolis, MN
November 15, 16, 17th, 2018

Information: www.minnesotaorchestra.org
1111 Nicollet Mall   |   Minneapolis, MN | (651) 465-7012

The mutual influence that music and art have had on one another has persisted in waxing and waning degrees throughout human history. Sometimes art and music have reflected the same philosophical source. Other times, art and music have translated and borrowed ideas from one another. Individual artists and composers, at times, have taken it upon themselves to accentuate the relationship between visual and auditory art, growing their fields in innovative ways.

Mary Pettis has created a series of paintings to pair with The Minnesota Orchestra’s performance of Lyadov’s “The Enchanted Lake”, Respighi’s “The Fountains of Rome”, and DeBussy’s “La Mer”.* The series is an invitation to find the music within the images and to understand the vehicles of expression and the different means by which they manifest. 

In this exhibition, Color Harmonies, there are perhaps two overriding themes that connect in parallel ways the pieces selected by the Minnesota Orchestra with the paintings selected by the artist:

1). Debussy, Respighi, and Lyadov provide us with titles, (the sea, fountains, and lakes) that stimulate our visual imagination and memory. The water motif is particularly prominent as a vehicle for an immense range of emotions in both the music and the paintings.

2). Painting is a language similar to music; a way to share impressions of this elegant world. Artists share with composers a similar vocabulary, using words like tone, color, harmony, and texture. Pettis invites the viewer to look for the color harmonies and to notice the various feelings they invoke; to see the music in the images.

Color Harmonies is a continuing celebration of the return of representational art to the realm of musicality. It is a reminder of our shared human experience, of the universality of emotional expression, and the fulfilling connections that the arts provide us. As a continuation of the co-evolution of music and art, it is designed to satisfy the viewer on both an intuitive and an intellectual level.

This exhibition takes place at Orchestra Hall on March 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, in tandem with the concerts being performed by the Orchestra, and echoes and develops sentiments similar to Mary’s 2017 OH+ Exhibition: “Beyond the Surface”.**

*Also being performed in March: Rachmaninoff’s “Piano Concerto No. 3.”

Orchestra Hall, Minneapolis, MN
March 1, 2, 3rd, 2018 

Information: www.minnesotaorchestra.org
1111 Nicollet Mall   |   Minneapolis, MN | (651) 465-7012

In Beyond the Surface, artist Mary Pettis draws upon the music and philosophy of Debussy to create a series of paintings to celebrate his  Images For Orchestra, being performed by the Minnesota Orchestra on  June 8, 9, 10  at the beautifully refurbished Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, Minnesota. 

By invoking the works of the past to inspire works in the present, Debussy and Pettis have created a collaboration across time, his fluency of the musical language inspiring her paintings. Pettis emphasizes the musicality of visual arts as a vehicle of deliberate expression. And like Debussy's compositions, this exhibition is designed to satisfy the viewer on both an intuitive and a technical level. It is for this reason that  Beyond the Surface  exemplifies a large, ground-breaking movement in contemporary art: Expressive Realism.

This movement is a fusion of the purest elements of art (such as color, texture, and form) and familiar, timeless subjects. Debussy (who always wanted to be a painter) is an appropriate choice for this  show.  As  Debussy invited his audience to look for images in the music, Pettis invites the viewer to see music in the images.  Debussy often used nostalgic images and songs as source material for his tradition-breaking style. Mary uses a similar approach: she translates the visual world into evocative sensory experiences. Expressive Realism employs, rather than shuns, the artistic language uncovered by the modern art movement. The result is an intensely fulfilling visual experience, both for the art novice and for those who are drawn to spend the time to look beyond the surface.

While seeing the MN Orchestra's performance of Debussy's "Images" requires tickets, Mary's exhibition is free and open to the public. Of course, if you can do both, it offers the opportunity to explore the experience of the intersection between his beautiful music and the paintings inspired by it.

Orchestra Hall, Minneapolis, MN
June 8, 9, 10th, 2017 

Information: www.minnesotaorchestra.org
1111 Nicollet Mall   |   Minneapolis, MN | (651) 465-7012