Summer in the Gallery: Looking at Lake Michigan

Spanning garden ponds and the seven seas, water draws artists to the task of capturing the light and form of constant motion. Throughout the centuries of painting and printing seascapes, a vast variety of styles has enabled artists to display the elements of a subject they deem most important.  This collection considers famous painters of seascapes first, then explores some artwork exhibited at the gallery.

Many artists are known for a unique approach to portraying water scenes, and James McNeill Whistler is one whose 1893 painting Violet and Silver – The Deep Sea weighs on the canvas with muted colors and hefty perspective (figure 1). This scene is the first of several examples of impressionism, a style recognizable for flexible perceptions of natural scenes. Blurred brushwork and a light palette often characterize impressionist artworks, and their details evoke an environment or more generally the idea of a place rather than a realistic view, which makes the style emotive and perceptual. Famously, Claude Monet’s 1906 Water Lilies displays a scene embodying stillness, encouraging viewers to appreciate a lilting watery scene the way he saw it. This landscape was based on his gardens at Giverny, increasing the connection to viewers who have been there, though the title is less descriptive. Frequently naming his paintings after the place of inspiration, John Marin painted Cape Split, Maine in 1941 and depicted the Atlantic with striking texture (fig. 2). Where Marin jolts watercolor waves into a pointed pattern, another artist may alternatively blur water into a smoother entity, such as a more washed out version of a striking scene, Fairfield Porter’s 1975 color lithograph on white woven paper, Sun and Sea (fig. 3). This print is bold and simple in form, following the rule of impressionism that the perception is original. 

A contemporary collection of seascapes reveals more variety in style, but still observes the horizon line implying a structure of water and sky similar to Whistler’s seascape. In contrast to impressionist painting, John Massey’s Chicago Has a Great Lake is bold and conceptual, with block symbols and text rather than brushstrokes. Here, his more representational Lake Michigan, January makes a statement of oversimplification (fig. 4). In these opposing waterscapes, a common subject of water bridges contrasting styles. Water is a relatable element, from representations of local spots to far away locations and even imagined views.

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Beyond these examples, countless artists have attempted dynamically and reflectively to capture bodies of water, and likewise, Vivid artists interpret similar scenes with distinct perspectives. Many of the artists at Vivid draw inspiration from Lake Michigan, and this pattern of painting oceans and lakes and water transcends any particular style. Vivid artists Patricia Dolan, Lucie Phillips, Angela Saxon, and Susan Jacoby capture their own views of the lake in its many moods, all with a surprising but consistent note of yellow making the most of a little warm light on a cool and neutral seascape. Applying an impressionist lens, each of these four artists picks out forms and colors and details to emphasize in her interpreted display. As any view of Lake Michigan changes with factors such as the season, cloud cover, visibility, perspective, and light, an artist’s representation of the lake varies vastly. The natural hues of different forms in each of these representational artworks play off each other's positioning for vibrant compositions. The descriptive art lends itself to imagination within the scenes, constructed with a personal connection to the atmosphere surrounding each artist. To evoke a similar serenity in a seascape despite variety in style and palette, these four paintings and prints display the artist’s authentic appreciation.

Patricia Dolan, Ypsoma (Elevation), 36x36, Oil on Canvas

This painting by Patricia Dolan emits quietude and stillness in a range of blues. Variations in tone guide the eye through the soft texture of a fading sky blending into water where a hazy blue lens hides a hint of pale yellow. The edge of the sky at the horizon line is a buttery blue. These light and airy hues emphasize a subtle difference between each color that could almost be grey on their own. Textured brush strokes capture the serene motion of waves on a calm day on any body of water. Locally, the lake is a major inspiration for the artist, but a unique influence as well is the Aegean Sea and also the coast of Palm Beach, Florida. While the artist may paint with a specific location in mind, she ultimately presents a pervasive landscape.

Lucie Phillips, Behind My Tree, 24 x 30, Oil on Canvas

This lush landscape by Lucie Phillips is layered with treelines near and far, combining  soft greens and light blues for a whimsical take on a recognizable landscape. The title implies  ownership of an original place with the word “my,” which makes the view personal to the artist and shares a unique perspective with viewers, like letting them in on a secret spot. A combination of colors lets us see the sunshine in every corner on the canvas: coves, trees, water, sky. Viewing this painting from different angles, it is easy to imagine the shift from a brilliant morning to a golden afternoon, as Lucie’s impression of the shore captures the light through bright hues. 

Angela Saxon, Running Long, 22 x 28, Monotype

A slightly glowing sky floats over linear waves in this monoprint by Angela Saxon. Perhaps depicting a sunrise, the colors are slightly muted despite the inherent light. Overlapping shapes present constant motion as waves run across the paper, and fragmented light looks gold on the clouds and their reflections. Saxon’s work varies and medium, and processes may include varying the pressure of her light watercolors, bright acrylics, and muted ink to form bold images of all sizes. Saxon often adds streaks and hatches and pencil marks, adding detail and surprise in looking closely. In this print, the flat monotype medium lets color stand out, and even sections of white contain tints of another color so they commit to being clouds or foam in the surf.

Susan Jacoby, Honey Glow, 36 x 36, Oil on Canvas

Another textured horizon painting, Honey Glow gives most of the canvas space to the sky. As in all of Susan Jacoby’s paintings presented at Vivid, colors blend across the canvas to show the texture of the environment with an easy flow. The canvas is large, but the depth of the landscape appears extensive as her process involves layers of flat color on the canvas. The colors in Honey Glow look dynamic and the landscape is flexible in interpretation. A bluish watery expanse fills the narrow foreground while a concentrated glow permeates the sky and steals the show in this dynamic scene.

This landscape inventory at Vivid conjures coastal views of the North Shore for a local audience who loves Lake Michigan. The influence of the Great Lake presents in bright blues across the gallery, and collectively, these four local artists display a constant nostalgia for the lake in summertime. While accessible and relatable to most visitors to Vivid, these contemporary artworks maintain an impressionistic core that leaves room for imagination in looking. The combination of colors and interaction of forms may remind everyone of somewhere different, because really, it’s just a horizon. The horizon motif in summer colors of yellow on blue warms each of these cool compositions of water and sky and present a palpable calm. The pensive perspective each artist presents through a horizon seascape glows softly in the generous light of the gallery.