The ‘Soundless Poetry’ Of Painting

WOODBURY — Southbury resident and artist Diane Pfister, an experienced sculptor, photographer and printmaker who for more than a decade has devoted her work to the medium of oil paintings on linen and canvas, is being represented with a collection of her works capturing the poetic and transcendent qualities of life in her new exhibition at Carole Peck’s Good News Cafe and Gallery.

The new exhibition, titled “Painting Is Soundless Poetry,” is on view until October 3.

“Painting Is Soundless Poetry” brings to Connecticut a collection of evocative, often dreamlike paintings in oil created during Pfister’s artistic odyssey from her native Ohio to New York, London and now Connecticut. Over the past 12 years, she has shown her works at diverse venues in England including Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and prestigious galleries in London, Thornbury Castle, and most recently The Felix Hotel in Cambridge.

Her paintings are part of private and corporate collections in the United States and Canada, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Australia.

Ms Pfister’s paintings, done in oils on canvas or linen stretched on wood frames, evoke deep emotions expressed through dynamic and vibrant colors, often balanced with textured rich brown and neutral hues reminiscent of Rembrandt works. The artist cites expressions in her work of the “root” metaphor at the core of the psychological theory of Carl Jung.

“References to the body, dress and other forms connect to a substructure of thought and creative expression, as the Jungian root connects us all,” she observed.

 “It is hard for me to write about ‘my work’ because when I work, I do not use language, at least not a verbal or written one,” Ms Pfister observed in her artist statement. “In some images, I have used the frame of the canvas to provide the boundaries — the ethereal state of being ‘there’ and the state of ‘reality’ represented by the wall.

“In other images, I have played with the squared-off spaces to create the timeline of painting: The raw linen exposed in some places, coupled with the finished statement in layers of paint, create a conversation that is open-ended. The viewer can fill in the blanks, create, and step into the frame and be in her or his own experience.”

Ms Pfister has created a series of paintings inspired by the Japanese kimono, a traditional garment that consciously conceals the human form. She contrasted this Eastern style of dress with the typical form-fitting apparel popular in Western contemporary cultures.

The artist explained she uses the kimono as a reference point for her art “because of the lack of relationship it has to the human body. Kimonos cloak the body, creating visuals that soar into the sky with birds, meander through forests and waterfalls, and create the illusion of space around the human body.

Good News Cafe & Gallery is open from 11:30 am to 10 pm Wednesday to Monday.