Paintings respond to vitality of nature

By Victoria Gail-White
Advertiser Art Critic

•	Mary M. Mitsuda: Recent Works Noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; open Thanksgiving Studio 1 550-8701

Mitsuda, an accomplished artist with works in the permanent collections of the Contemporary Museum, the State Foundation of Culture and the Arts and the State Art Museum, has achieved a sense of the ethereal in this body of work.

In the massive (84 by 60 inches) "Still Life," bright red and yellow under-painted areas peak through the white spatula-applied top layers of paint.

"I want to respond to the forces of nature in different ways," says Mitsuda. "This allows me to get new imagery."

Varying the tempo in the application and noticing the reaction of the paints to each other, she lets the images emerge from the process. An intuitive painter, she says, "I set up a situation and let the substance take over. It makes a better image. My job is to watch while I'm doing it."

"Iron Veil" is a painted poem. Beneath a thin veil of white paint applied in thick horizontal strokes with random vertical drips are areas of blended autumnal colors of burgundy and rust with nebulous yellow shapes suggestive of flowers or fireflies. The work is reminiscent of looking through a rain-soaked window at either a water lily garden or an evening sky. Although darker than most of the work in the show, it seems charged with vitality and pensiveness.

Included in this exhibit are eight new pieces in the "Ti Series." These realistic monotypes are often mistaken for real ti leaves, but they're not. The series will be complete, says Mitsuda, when she has printed 100 different leaves.

There are so many paintings in this exhibit to linger on and enjoy. "Drip Architecture," "Landscape Bluish White," "Manuscript" and "Letter" are all uniquely lovely. But one small work seems a feat of spontaneous direction: "Study. Falls 1."

Here, in the least complicated manner of capturing a moment on canvas, with minimal color (soft and darker grays and a little white), is a waterfall, or the suggestion of one, forever suspended in its own mists.

Correction: Paintings by Mary Mitsuda are on display at Studio 1. A headline on a previous version of this story was incorrect.