FLORA: Paintings by Janet Alling

June 19 - August 18, 2010
Members' Preview Reception June 18

Janet Alling White Bearded Irises, Ming (blue), 2001, Oil on linen 60 x 36 in.

Janet Alling believes it was her destiny to paint plants and flowers. For over 40 years she has chipped away at traditional hierarchies of subject matter by giving botanicals the same prominence and credibility as figure paintings and landscapes.

This exhibition of exquisite floral paintings reaches back to the 1960s and follows Alling's development through the early 2000s as she engages with formal visual ideas, c

olor, light, composition, scale and the phenomena of the natural world. The selected works include examples of Alling's early, tentative, but carefully observed watercolors of single red roses; voluptuous large scale portrayals of begonias, zinnias and irises; and emotive, highly charged tulip paintings from her 2004 series, The Seven Deadly Sins.

Born and raised in New York City, Alling studied at the Yale School of Art during the 1960s when Abstract Expressionism was king. She now lives and works in Providence, Rhode Island.

Lunch with Janet Alling

Share an intimate hour with artist Janet Alling on Tuesday June 29, when she joins Executive Director Lisa Goddard and guests for lunch. Janet will talk about her work as we tour "Flora: Paintings by Janet Alling." Pack a brown bag lunch and meet us at noon in the Griswold House.

Now Avilable in the Griffon Shop

Available now in the Museum's Griffon Shop: Flora: Paintings by Janet Alling, with an introduction by Newport Art Museum Curator Nancy Whipple Grinnell. Published by Beaufort Books, Inc.