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The power of flowers with a splash of wine
Friday, May 14, 2010
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photos by DARWIN WEIGEL
Pat Troiani's watercolor paintings are showcased in two local shows. Her solo exhibition, "Flower Power," in the cafe at Annmarie Garden Sculpture Park and Arts Center, showcases her favorite subject: flowers. At CalvART, in Prince Frederick, Troiani is one of three featured artists in "Wine, Women and Watercolor."
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Where Pat Troiani came from, tourists created the art market and gallery owners sought artists who could answer the demand. This was 1984. This was in the Outer Banks of North Carolina where Troiani, now 80, and her husband lived for 24 years before moving to Solomons two years ago to live closer to their children.
Native Pennsylvanians, Troiani, a longtime elementary school art teacher, and her husband, a metallurgist, had each retired at 55 and had moved to the Outer Banks for more sunshine and year-round golf. This was also a time when Troiani began to get serious about watercolor, and even more serious about her favorite subject: flowers.
But tourists didn't buy flowers. Tourists bought landscapes, lighthouses, local depictions (Troiani could eventually paint all of North Carolina's lighthouses from memory). But 10 years after her arrival — for whatever reason — the tastes of tourists seemed to become more inclusive.
Enter flowers. "I've been painting watercolors since 1947; that's a long time," says Troiani, who attended art school at 38 and later earned a master's degree in fine arts from Maryland Institute, College of Art. "Iris is my favorite flower and I have probably painted 300 to 500. I've run out of what to call them, so I look into seed catalogues and see what they're called."
A member of Artworks@7th and CalvART, Troiani now meets with a reporter in Annmarie Garden Sculpture Park and Arts Center's café gallery, the walls of which display nothing save her most sustaining subject. The show, "Flower Power," is a collection of 18 floral paintings, new and old, in the wild and in the vase. Watercolor on paper is the prevailing medium, but you will also find a handful of watercolors on yupo, a slippery white synthetic paper, not to mention one large, 6-year-old triumphant oil titled "Ladies in Waiting" (see cover), an up-close view of vibrant, red-orange poppies on black space.
Even here, Troiani's preference for bright color is evident. ("Whenever I try to go light, it just doesn't work out," she says matter-of-factly.)
Give these paintings some distance; that's where the colors will snap together. "Afternoon Shadows" reveals a vase of flowers on a white-cloth covered table in front of an open window — and also an affinity for details. Her still lifes possess energy and motion, though she's admittedly not prone to abstraction. Even so, her subjects more often pose on entertaining colorscapes than within tidy rooms or the natural world.
There's skillful rawness, too. Although Troiani will sometimes work from photographs, she prefers to work from setups and with real flowers, working quickly. "If it takes you more than a day to do flowers," she says, "they could be dead the next day or wilting."
Sometimes, though, the process can take closer to a week. Say, when Troiani starts by drawing an image on a canvas, covering the image and pouring paint over the canvas several times, sliding it to and fro, until she has a suitable backdrop. She is particularly enthusiastic about painting on yupo, perhaps because the practice is still new and fresh and undefined. While Troiani has spent much of her art life seeking out workshops to learn new techniques, she has yet to find a book on it. Rather, she got a piece of it and started with one instruction: no hair dryer. (Now she teaches it.)
The introduction of yupo has also increased Troiani's confidence to try new things. She no longer gets "white knuckles" when attempting to paint water. And lately, when she has an idea for a painting, she simply decides which medium — yupo or paper — will best meet her aims.
Troiani came to Solomons during the recession. These years have been great in terms of output, she says, and dismal in terms of sales. "I'm producing," she says, "because I love it, I can't stop." You can see this up the road at CalvART, where she has teamed up with Mary Blumberg and Ann Trentman for a show titled "Wine, Women and Watercolor." You can also see Troiani's penchant for red.
Enter "Shady Lady," a side angle of a blonde socialite in a bright red dress, the pearls dangling. Like "Ladies in Waiting," this one presents eye-popping color on black, yet it's tiny. The flower is even tinier, a bright red spot on a floppy hat.
"Flower Power" — The café exhibition will continue at Annmarie Garden Sculpture Park and Arts Center through May 30. Hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday-Monday. Fee is $3, $2 for senior citizens and children 5-12 and free for children younger than 5. Annmarie Garden is at 13480 Dowell Road, Solomons. Call 410-326-4640. "Wine, Women and Watercolor" — The exhibition will continue at CalvART Gallery through June 6. The gallery is at 110 Solomons Island Road, Prince Frederick. Hours are 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday. Call 410-535-9252. Go to www.calvertarts.org.
