In print
The Birmingham Weekly
April 19, 2007
HE’S NOT FROM MONROEVILLE:
But at least it’s an Alabamian taking his shot at capturing the essence of Nelle Harper Lee. Brian Edmonds’ art show, Songs for Harper Lee, concludes its run at Bare Hands Gallery April 21. His landscape paintings are an attempt to show the spirit of Lee’s classic work, To Kill A Mockingbird. The paintings are ethereal, boldly colored and quintessentially Southern in appearance. Edmonds is a self-taught painter and his goal is a lofty one here. As proud literary Alabamians we bow up our backs every time we hear about somebody trying to reveal anything about Ms. Lee (Charles Shields was skating on thin ice, for example). But Edmonds’ attempt is worthy and his paintings are intriguing.
The Birmingham News
Paintings capture essence of Harper Lee's words Sunday, April 15, 2007
BRIAN EDMONDS: Songs for Harper Lee. Bare Hands Gallery. Through April 21.
An interesting point of departure for a visual artist is to try and capture another artist's persona, in this instance the writer Harper Lee by way of the classic book, "To Kill a Mockingbird," By way of an intuitive response, Edmonds' paintings have succeeded in many ways. He creates landscapes that have the hidden character of the Southern view, a powerfully simplified approach to composition and a delightful feel for an almost childlike view of nature.
Edmonds' paintings provide a bold and graceful interpretation of nature through bold color patterns, heavily outlined shapes and generally high horizons. At first glance, the paintings recall simple children's puzzles made up of five or ten pieces. The trees are a swirl of green on a slender stalk, suggesting lollipops stuck in the ground. In several paintings, he pulls the work together by scratching the pigment with the wood end of his brush, exposing fine lines of bare canvas. Other paintings suggest the interstate highway interchanges that occur in remote areas, connecting roads that traverse Alabama.
He puts a lid on all his canvases, capping them with pieces of wood painted black. The effect is one of pushing down on a narrow strip of sky and weighing against the landscape with omnipresent force.
For Edmonds, Lee's book becomes a force that inspires visual interpretation that is both intriguing and insightful.
MC gets a view of the South
Alabama native describes his literary influences
By ANNIE ZAK
The Register-Mail
Posted Jan 18, 2010 @ 12:26 PM
MONMOUTH —
For painter Brian Edmonds, the new art exhibit, “Everything That Rises Must Converge,” in the Len G. Everett Gallery of Monmouth College is his first solo show outside of his home state of Alabama.
A fan of Southern writers, Edmonds says authors such as Harper Lee and Flannery O’Connor play a large part in the composition of his work.
“I look at southern literature and let it influence the way I feel and the way everything looks, says Edmonds. While he read Lee as a young boy, it was not until he re-read it at an older age that he was surprised at its power and importance. One of his collections of paintings goes by the name of “Songs for Harper Lee,” and he says in some ways it is similar to his collection on display in Monmouth.
“It’s a convergence of everything, really, that I’ve done over the last 10 or 15 years,” Edmonds says. “All the work came together for that one series.”
Most of the paintings are based on the landscapes of the South, with small round trees indicating where the earth ends and the sky begins. While the images are inspired by places like Alabama, the linear fields seen in the work are not a far cry from the fields and plains of Illinois.
Edmonds is influenced by authors and artists who use the environment, such as Henry Matisse and Richard Diebenkorn.
The exhibit will be on display at Monmouth College through Feb. 19. Edmonds’ artwork is available for viewing online at www.brianedmonds.com