Opinion | Three Hamilton artists prove that laundry paintings are still fresh - TheSpec.com

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The art of laundry is better loved than the act of laundry. Indeed, laundry hangs out surprisingly often in art from the past two centuries, and it’s still fresh today.

James Gummerson is well known for his paintings of residential streets and gardens in Hamilton. Sometimes he looks into back yards as well. That’s where he found the subject of “Backyard Summer.”

“When I think about laundry, I think about the many years as a child I spent doing it,” Gummerson says. “Laundry was my chore when I was young. I spent a lot of time in the laundromat folding and waiting for clothes to wash and dry.

“There is something satisfying about finishing a load of laundry, though. When you have it all folded neatly in the basket and it’s ready to wear.”

“Backyard Summer” features a washday scene — without a laundromat in sight. The painting, Gummerson says, is a view from his studio in the Strathcona neighbourhood.

James Gummerson, Backyard Summer, acrylic on canvas, 18 by 24 inches, $925.Photo courtesy of Earls Court Gallery

“This scene is exactly the way I saw it. I didn’t want to leave anything out. All the criss-crossed lines and colours and shapes of the laundry created a beautiful abstract. Life imitating art. I wanted to capture it all in that moment.”

A wooden fence in the lower left leads us to part of a backyard. The laundry hangs on two lines surrounded by trees and flowering shrubs.

“This is a typical scene in my neighbourhood during the summer,” Gummerson says. “There’s something about the laundry flapping in the wind, the hot sun beating down on it and creating dramatic shadows.”

Donna Fratesi went farther afield and found her sunny washday scene during one of her best painting trips to the south of France. In “Gite: South of France,” she takes in a wider view. A colourful arrangement of garments hangs on a line that stretches from a big old house, or gite, to a tree.

Donna Fratesi, Gite: South of France, acrylic on canvas, 24 by 30 inches, $1,100.Photo courtesy of Earls Court Gallery

She says she added a few more clothes to the line, but otherwise, stayed close to what she saw.

“The gite stood out with its quaint appearance, and the laundry added to the scene,” she says. “I think clothes hanging on a line bring in the human element. Feelings of times past when we all hung our clothes out on a Monday.”

Fratesi paints in a loosely lifelike style. Blue dabs of paint enliven the tree trunk. Smudges of green paint fill out the foliage. Streaks of light and dark paint suggest sun and shadows in the foreground.

“Now laundry is so easy with washers and dryers, but I remember when my children were small it took a good part of the day lugging washing from the basement out to the line,” she says. “I do remember the wonderful smell of freshly dried clothes and think we may have lost something in our rush to convenience.”

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Both Gummerson and Fratesi hint at human presence through the laundry, but Conrad Furey actually shows a woman on laundry day.

Furey, who lived in Hamilton until his death in 2008, depicted people at work and play. Many of his vignettes were inspired by his life in Newfoundland.

Conrad Furey, Hanging the Laundry, oil on panel, 36 by 46 inches, $5,600.Photo courtesy of Earls Court Gallery

In “Hanging the Laundry,” Furey reduces the scene to the woman, an item of laundry and part of a house. She’s already attached one corner of the tablecloth with an old-fashioned wooden clothes peg and prepares to attach a second corner. But a playful wind takes hold of the cloth, painted as an undulating shape that dominates the foreground.

These paintings by Gummerson, Fratesi and Furey are available at Earls Court Gallery (earlscourtart.com and 905-527-6685).

RH

Regina Haggo, art historian, public speaker, curator, YouTube video maker and former professor at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, teaches at the Dundas Valley School of Art.

The Link Lonk


May 22, 2021 at 06:32PM
https://www.thespec.com/entertainment/art/opinion/2021/05/22/three-hamilton-artists-prove-that-laundry-paintings-are-still-fresh.html

Opinion | Three Hamilton artists prove that laundry paintings are still fresh - TheSpec.com

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