You never know when inspiration will find you. For artist Beatrice Baldwin, the spark of an idea found her as she stood in Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts a few years ago. Craning her neck in a crowded gallery, she tried to catch a glimpse of the van Gogh paintings on display, but all she could see were backs of heads.
"Escaping the cacophony, I entered a side gallery and discovered a space filled with soft, glowing light and quietly reverent sound,” she remembered. “Unknowingly, I had come upon Louis Comfort Tiffany’s "A Wooded Landscape in Three Panels," a gigantic stained-glass window.”
Tiffany’s artwork ignited an idea for a new way of making art. Prior to that visit, Baldwin had painted mainly using watercolor. But on the drive back to Austin, she kept thinking about Tiffany’s art, and she began to ask herself the question, “Can I create a painting that resembles or feels like a stained-glass window?”
She knew she wanted to create landscapes with “clearly defined shapes outlined with black lines,” but she wasn’t immediately sure how to emulate Tiffany’s use of variegate glass with acrylic paint.
“I had noticed many different textures of glass at the museum,” she said, especially one Tiffany piece that had “chips and bits of glass which looked like woodland dirt and twigs.”
In her studio, Baldwin tried using stencils to recreate this effect.
“I stenciled swirls, butterflies to skies, leaves and flowers in hill shape areas, fish into water, and geometric shapes wherever it seemed right.”
She doesn’t know how a painting will end up when she first starts it.
“Each painting begins with my general idea about composition but changes as I take the journey of adding colors and stencils until it feels complete. Each painting is an experiment during which I build layer upon layer, searching for colorful contrasts and hidden stencil details.”
The effect is captivating. The landscapes Baldwin has created in this series feature lively patterns, flowing lines and a palette of bright, cheerful colors. Members of the community can enjoy Baldwin’s landscapes in her exhibit, Peaceful Gardens, currently on display at Laura’s Library through Aug. 8.
Community librarian Cristen Darcus helps to curate the art exhibits on display at Laura’s Library.
“Beatrice has exhibited with us multiple times, and for good reason,” she said. “Her work has really spoken to many of us on staff, and we’ve gotten so many wonderful comments from the public. I think we all need a little bit more of the calm that the Peaceful Garden series evokes.”
Once the Peaceful Gardens exhibit comes down next month, Baldwin is installing a second summer exhibit at Laura’s Library, Whimsical Portraits, which will run Aug. 9 through Sept. 19.
Baldwin’s portraits, like her landscapes, use stenciled patterns and bold, bright colors. But while her landscapes exude a feeling of peaceful joy, her portraits often make viewers laugh with their animated, humorous expressions.
Inspiration for the Whimsical Portrait series struck when Baldwin was out to brunch with friends a couple of years ago. She brought out her camera to take pictures of her food and, on a whim, asked her companions to pose wearing “delighted, joyful expressions.” These photographs were the seeds for her first portraits. Since then, she’s asked others to pose for her as well.
“I cajoled another group of artist friends to meet me for a Mexican lunch. We raised some smiling eyebrows and enjoyed being outrageous.”
These portraits are filled with celebration, silliness and friendship. Watch anyone looking at one of Baldwin’s portraits and you’ll see them break out in a broad grin, as if they, too, are at the table enjoying a delicious meal with a group of funny friends.
“In this time of horrible events and nearly constant negative news, I need to find joy and humor when I’m in my studio,” Baldwin said. “I think we all need ways to laugh.”
Maureen Turner Carey is a public service and PR librarian at the Westbank Community Library District.