Uncertainty and beauty
Published Saturday June 20th, 2009
Francis Wishart's 'Some Trees,' showing at Gallery 78, allows viewers to step into a unique and precious forest
It is immensely beautiful and integral to the survival of numerous species in our region. The Acadian Forest, running from New York, through the northeastern states of New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine and into the Maritimes, is a meeting place where the northern boreal forest blends with southern hardwood forests. It hosts a unique mixture of 32 softwood and hardwood species that provide rich, diverse habitats for a wide range of plants, mammals and birds.
To be immersed in this forest is heavenly; and it is what celebrated artist Francis Wishart invites us to experience in his latest exhibition of works, Some Trees, showing at Gallery 78 until June 28.
The collection of 29 monotypes features images of his family's summer property in Nigadoo, near Bathurst. The son of Anne Dunn, daughter of Sir James Dunn, and Britain's Michael Wishart, Francis first began making the annual trek to the region when he was only 12. He has returned each summer since, dividing his time there with his home in Provence, France.
"Once you've tasted the beauty, there's nowhere else you want to go," he says.
Wishart has long had an affinity for the Acadian Forest, having championed for protection for several years. It is currently designated as endangered by the World Wildlife Fund.
"There are very beautiful forests everywhere in the world," he says, "but there are aspects of this that set this apart.
"It's an extraordinary place, unknown in a curious way - not how it deserves to be," Wishart says.
The artist has always painted and drawn this forest, but last year he trudged a 500-pound monotype press to his studio in the woods.
Monotype, a process Wishart has been experimenting with for 20 years, captures this beautiful mixed habitat in the glorious colour and light that Wishart has become known for internationally.
The printing technique allows for only one print, and this is reversed. Art is prepared on a plate - Wishart prefers zinc, for its texture, and plastics - which is then transferred to paper through the monotype press.
Oil-based printers' ink is his medium. Applied to the plate on-site, he smudges and blends colours to develop elements such as meadowlands, undergrowth, bushes and distant treelines so they appear soft and unabated.
He then uses twigs, pine needles, branches and leaves to remove ink, to create texture. In Stand in a Line this technique reproduces the upward motion of grasses in foreground; in Close Encounter it depicts speckles in aubergine bark.
These vacancies also create depth.
Typically monotypes are very flat in appearance, he says, referring to the works of 19th-century artist Edgar Degas.
Most are devoid of colour. The inks are quite difficult to reproduce accurately in monotypes, he explains.
Wishart defies this traditional style.
His works - Acadian Palette and Oncoming Winter are strong examples - are sometimes explosive with pinks, violets, greens, corals, stark blues and yellows.
Another element of the process Wishart continually strives to improve upon is the "development of light in the works," he says. "It's what I aim for."
X Stream features highlights on tree limbs and openings through masses of foliage. By pulling out light, giving images depth, it is almost as if the viewer in walking directly into the woods - one can feel the cushioning of the forest floor and scent of mosses, foliage and undergrowth.
Wishart enjoys the challenges of monotype.
"Inks dry relatively fast," he says. "The ink reacts very much to the ambient temperatures. Then there are insects, mosquitoes ... there's a very physical aspect."
Then there's the unpredictability.
"There's some uncertainty to the final product, how effects and colour will reproduce."
While he says he is quite methodological, he does enjoy the factor of surprise.
"There's an element of accident," he says, "how much ink will press and be pushed. It's a weird process," he says.
"It's inexplicable. Sometimes (the art) comes on its own. You don't quite know what you get."
Wishart is a hard worker. He completed all 29 works in 2008, from his summer months of June to August and upon his return from September to November.
Such a time span has resulted in a body of work that demonstrates a fuller, more complete pictorial story of the Acadian Forest - its lush, vibrant foliage of early summer to the starkness and elegant form of late fall and early winter.
When he returns in July of this year, he says, he plans to build on this exploration by creating a series for a showing in England.
"It's my intention to push it further," he says.
Angie Kippers is copy editor of Salon.
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