NetWorks Rhode Island and the Chazan Collection Exhibition, WaterFire Arts Center (2024) Bio:
Elizabeth Pannell lives and maintains a studio in Providence, Rhode Island. As a plain air painter working primarily in oils and gouache, Pannell strives to capture the essential impressions of the New England coastal areas with intensity and immediacy. She is a graduate of Parsons School of Design and the Rhode Island School of Design.
James Watkins: Growing up in coastal Louisiana, I spent a great deal of my childhood exploring the outdoors. As an avid spectator of the natural world, my observations were often made from a watery place or atop a tree. The avian world fascinated me and throughout my life, forms from flora and fauna have been my constant inspiration. I also find beauty in every day objects, both in their utility and form. I am particularly enamored of vessels used to contain or convey liquids. These are my stimuli. The curvaceous volume found in a seedpod, a bird’s wing or a boats hull, have all become part of my artistic vocabulary. The fluid melding of forms such as the spout of a pitcher with a ducks head seems a natural metamorphosis. Transformation and unlikely combinations reveal affinities in disparate objects.
Original NetWorks Catalogue Bio:
Life’s course does not always follow the planned route. These days, as time allows, I am drawn to the sea, to bask in its restorative powers. I was raised on the water, the daughter of a sailor, and have always had an emotional response to the sea’s energy. I paint from life, plein air, in locations which are imbued with peace and tranquility. In response to the elements, awash in color and light, I work to express this feeling of calm inspired by nature. My paintings are studies, impressions of a day, a location, a time of year, a moment, a memory. –Elizabeth Pannell, 2008
Watkins’ work is about contemplation as much as it is about the action of making. His work slows down our perceptual process so that we can consider the possibilities of interpretation rather than having the obvious and often literal shapes name themselves. The universality of his forms reflects whole worlds of faunal, floral and artifactual antecedents. We soon find ourselves asking questions. Does the transparency of a glass form complicate its exterior shape or help us perceive its major volumes? Does a shaped outline in a relief derive from a three-dimensional work or vice versa? Are the other elements which give context to his pieces like wall plaques or horizontal bases integral to his objects or apart from them? Unlike most objects in our modern world, the things that Watkins makes afford his viewers the chance to think, to consider the possibilities, to contemplate, and thus to imagine. From: A Pattern Language: The Sculpture of James Watkins by Ronald J. Onorato.
Source: NetWorks 2008 Catalogue
Cast glass, 18 x 12 x 4 in.
Oil on canvas, 15 x 30 in.
Credits:
Produced and Directed by Scott Tiffany Time Frame Films
Executive Producer: Joseph A. Chazan M.D.
Additional Information:
Artist’s website: pandwglass.com/liz-and-jim
Highlighting the work of selected artists who have played vital roles in shaping the contemporary visual arts community in Rhode Island. This collection of brief video portraits provides a window into the lives, practices, and cultural contributions of professional artists.
