Picture Paradise: Paintings by Sue McNally

June 13 - August 12, 2009

Sue McNally Hanging Rock Sunset, 2008, Oil on canvas

Just outside of Newport, Rhode Island, a few square miles of rolling hills and sandy coastline have been attracting many of America's finest artists for hundreds of years. Although some development has been permitted in the area, this picturesque region, known since the 1800s as Paradise Valley, remains largely unspoiled and continues to be a source of inspiration for artists today, including Newporter, Sue McNally. Taking her cues from some of the well-known 19th and 20th century painters who worked in the area, McNally combines elements of the historic works she finds intriguing with her own interpretations of the scenery to create recognizable yet utterly contemporary images. An exhibition of her work, "Picture Paradise: Paintings by Sue McNally," opens on June 13, 2009 at the Newport Art Museum in Newport, Rhode Island and runs through August 12, 2009.

McNally combines temporal elements - historic images with modern interpretations of contemporary scenes - to create something new. But the artist also combines two interpretive approaches: She often includes abstract imagery within her otherwise representational paintings.

George Quincy Thorndike Hanging Rock, 1866, Oil on canvas Courtesy of Newport Historical Society

In Hanging Rock Sunset, 2008, McNally gives us a scene that will be familiar to many who live near-by or have visited the area around Sachuest Beach in Middletown, Rhode Island. A massive outcrop of rock juts out of the earth, dominating the gently rolling land all around it. This is "Hanging Rock" and it has been depicted hundreds - maybe thousands of times - by artists working in many different media over hundreds of years. In this work, McNally is referring to George Quincy Thorndike's 1866 painting, Hanging Rock, and Martin Johnson Heade's 1861 painting, Seascape: Sunset. "I've combined Thorndike's composition with the colors in Heade's sunset," she says.

Indeed, McNally’s palette very closely follows Heade’s but in McNally’s hands, the scene she and Thorndike portray takes on an other-worldly feel. Undergrowth fluoresces with colors more typically seen in an evening sky while the sky itself has a strange green cast. Most unsettling of all, a huge, orange bulbous form hangs in the sky where the viewer expects to see wisps of clouds lit by the setting sun.

“I focus on creating a relationship between abstract and representational elements in each
painting,” says McNally. For the most part, she uses color to achieve balance in her images. “Form and color are important to me; they help me bridge the gap between abstract and representational,” she says.

McNally often places her abstract elements in the skies of her landscapes. She explains her fascination with the sky this way: “I spend a lot of time in the West – in Utah at 7000 feet where the clouds, the sky are closer to me physically. When you stand outside in Newport, you’re often looking out. You’re on the edge of the scene, not in it. In the West, I feel like I’m in the middle of the scene. I’m trying to carry that over into New England.”

Several of the paintings in “Picture Paradise” are mural-size. McNally says, “scale is a great way of connecting with the scene, with the image.” Scale is one of the techniques she uses to give viewers “the feeling of one's physical presence in the landscape,” in the same way many of her favorite 18th and 19th painters were able to accomplish.

Connecting with her audience is important to McNally. “When I paint something that is recognizable I’m able to attract people - even people who aren’t necessarily interested in painting in general. It gets them interested in art more broadly after that. There’s an instant connection because they recognize something or some place. It’s very rewarding.” 

Learn more about Paradise Valley and see Hanging Rock at the Norman Bird Sanctuary!