LIFTING THE DAY: lockdown exhibition
By Mary
Collis
Reviewed by
Margaretta wa Gacheru
That first
year of the COVID lockdown was a dreary affair. It was a struggle for many
people just to wake up and find a good reason to get out of bed.
Simple
things began to matter more, like bright colors splashed onto a virtual canvas
and gardens filled with rainbow outbursts of flowers, grasses, and trees.
Kenyan
artist Mary Collis responded to the lockdown in the only way she knew how, by
painting and sharing her luminous landscapes on Facebook on a daily basis.
‘Lifting the
Day’ was the name she gave to her daily dose of a single exquisite painting
shared on social media.
It was a
stroke of genius and generosity to both friend and stranger who hadn’t known
her bright and brilliant paintings before. It didn’t matter to her how the
public received them or even if they saw them. She was simply hopeful that by
bringing out both old and new pieces, an online audience might feel the
uplifting spirit that had inspired the work in the first place.
Mary put her
paintings online for 244 marvelous days, and then finally decided to stop. Not
that she had come to an end to her artistic expression or to the works she
could have shared. But it was time.
It was a sad
time for some of us who had experienced the daily delight of seeing her
impressions of a Limuru Tea Plantation or her light studies of False Bay in
Cape Town or her multiple perspectives of the riotous colors that filled her
‘Erica’s Garden’ series.
Fortunately,
the book publisher Unicorn got wind of Mary’s online art exhibition and
contacted the artist to see if she’d like her story and her art shared in a
book?
‘Lifting the
Day: lockdown exhibition’ was launched in Nairobi last Friday, November 26 to
the delight of a ballroom-full of book lovers, family, and friends.
The room
itself was filled with some of the artist’s most prized paintings, reflective
of her dazzling use of color, light, and nature. Most of her artworks are of
Kenyan settings, each one luminous with equatorial light.
Tourism
hasn’t taken advantage of Mother Nature’s magnificent color schemes that she
brings forth in many of Kenya’s most stunning gardens. Mary’s book should go
some distance to draw attention to the natural beauty and eye-smacking realism
found in gardens like the artist’s dear friend, former fashion designer, the
late Erica Boswell.
Mary
discovered abstract expressionism when she was still working as an interior
decorator, and realized being a painter was a better fit for her
professionally. Since then, she’s exhibited all over Kenya and overseas. Her
works are collected in both private and public places internationally.
The global
reach of her art hadn’t been known by the artist until she began receiving
messages from happy owners of her art. Many of them sent images of paintings
they’d either bought or been given by the artist over the years. Several of
them appear in ‘Lifting the Day.’
One extra
benefit of seeing Mary’s book, which contains all 244 artworks that she shared
publicly in 2020, is reading her captions. Many of them describe the where,
when, and why she painted what she did. She may even say who owns the painting
and where it currently stays. Her intimate style of communication is
conversational, as if she’s speaking to you, the viewer, like a good friend who
deserves to know her wonderful anecdotal stories.
The other
advantage of having the book is that the brightness and the beauty of Kenyan
colors and light are right at one’s fingertips.
At the book
launch, Mary made crystal clear how much she owed to her darling daughter, the
award-winning photographer Mia. It was Mia who helped her assemble the minimum
244 high resolution images which were not conveniently located on one single
art-filled flash disk. And it was her devoted spouse Alan who helped her with
the proofreading of her texts, her storytelling about each painting that brings
each picture even more mental light.
Like her
favorite abstract expressionists, Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollack, and Joan
Mitchell, Mary values spontaneity and freedom. She’s also inspired by the
beauty that she sees and has the gift of ability to express how that beauty
makes her feel. It’s that gift which is contained in her newest version of
‘Lifting the Day.’
she called,
after receiving the publisher’s message (having been spurred on by another
locally-based artist, Sophie Walboeffe)
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