Art Matters

First Anniversary Birthday Party
Nina Beall
Cadme Gallery
October 10 to November 4

First birthdays usually aren’t remembered by the guest of honor, but Cadme Gallery is certain to remember October 9.

Looking down on all this happiness were the energy-packed landscapes of Texas-born Nina Beall. With paint heavy and impenetrable (two-inches thick in places), she portrays nature’s overpowering forces on her Texas sized canvases. Undulating waves of strength, reminiscent of Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night,” roll off walls to sweep the viewer through infinite acres of dried cornstalks and release them only at vanishing point. Angular black backs of cattle merge into an angry rhythm set by untamed waters, grassland, sky – forces threatening momentary extinction. Charred, twisted tree stumps express pain and struggle, Beall explains, but the stumps are alive with “a growing, reaching spirit. Nature strongly reflects life’s incongruities.”

So does her art: Beall uses – what else? – a cake decorator to attain the thick impasto. Cheers, Nina Beall. Continued success, Cadme Gallery! (Clee Leonard)