Light, Silence

And the Colors of the Past

Interview by Kadence Englehardt

Beverly Gimlin’s textural paintings explore the light and color around her. She is inspired by the dualities of the city/island lifestyle she enjoys here in the Northwest. Gimlin is currently working on a mixed-media series that deals with unexamined issues of a mostly silent past. Here, we discuss how her textural work is connected to her new series by the deep emotions within.

Kadence Englehardt: I love your use of color. It’s so striking.

Beverly Gimlin: Thanks. I consider myself a colorist, and I think everyone else does. But it’s probably one of the hardest things. I get lost with it all the time.

KE: What exactly does that term ‘colorist’ mean?

BG: Well, I don’t even really know. That’s a really good question. I use color a lot, and I investigate it a lot. It’s very important to my work.

KE: When did you first decide that you wanted to work in art?

BG: I took my first painting lesson when I was 14, but I was probably around 21 when I decided I really wanted to pursue it. So, I’ve been doing it for quite awhile.

KE: Have you always been very abstract?

BG: No. I did figurative work and I did paintings that referred to objects; for example, I did a series on doorways and other things. But when I went to grad school, my work evolved into abstraction. I was really influenced by the abstract expressionists. It got me into thinking in abstract terms, and to paint non-objectively. The pieces that are up on my website currently are mainly landscape-based, and I still do those, and I think I will always be interested in landscape and how it informs my work, but I am moving in a little bit of a different direction now. Not because I’m trying to stop doing landscapes, but I’m doing a series where I can choose to incorporate it or not.

KE: Speaking of your website, I saw that you mentioned your “artistic advisers are the centuries of artists who came before you.” Do you happen to have any favorites?

BG: Which decade? <laughs> I’ve been influenced by so many different artists, beginning with early Renaissance, all the way to the present time. When I was in grad school, I was heavily influenced by Gorky and DeKooning. But I actually look at a wide range of artists. Currently, I’m doing mixed-media pieces, and I’m looking at a lot of Eva Hesse. I like her repetition of forms, and I’m trying to use that as an inspiration.

KE: Going back to your inspiration by landscapes, you also mention on your website a very interesting term: “visceral experiences.” How would you describe that to someone?

BG: Because I’m visual, I’m always looking. I get affected by what I’m looking at, and what I’ve looked at a lot is color and light of this particular area. To me, it’s a gut thing – totally instinctual. That’s how I really decide what direction I’m going to go into. I was looking at a lot of water, sunrises, and sunsets because back in those days I was getting up really, really early because I had to. When you see a sunrise every single morning, you notice how different they are: different in the spring, different in the fall, and so on. That’s what I mean by ‘visceral.’ It’s that gut feeling that you get.

KE: Have you always lived in the Pacific Northwest or Seattle-area?

BG: No, I grew up in Oklahoma, left there when I was about 21, and then lived almost 18 years in California: I lived there for both my undergraduate and graduate degrees. It’s different. In Oklahoma, there’s a lot of sun, and obviously in California there’s sun, although there’s not as much sun as people think there is in the Bay-area. My husband and I moved here after our twins were born. We decided that we didn’t really want to raise them in the Bay-area, and I had to be a near a city and he doesn’t really like cities: so we moved to Bainbridge Island. I have the best of both worlds. But, I had a hard time adjusting because light had been such an important part of my work.

KE: Yea, in the winter and fall here, it’s so dark. But, in the summer, it’s light out until like 9:30 at night.

BG: It took me awhile to realize, and I didn’t like it because it was too dark. But then as I started observing it, I realized that the light here is different and quite beautiful in its own way. I had to accept it at first. When I finally resolved that issue, about being here and understanding how to use it, it really played a big part in my paintings and how they began to evolve. Certainly, the weather and the landscape around this area affected my work in a really good way.

KE: Have you always had a separate studio from your home?

BG: When the kids were little, I tried the studio-at-home bit, and it was just difficult. Once they got a little bit older, I got a separate space of my own. I started out in Jackson Street Studios – I was there for 10 years. I moved here [to the Bemis Building] about 3 years ago. This is a fantastic studio. It’s the nicest one I’ve ever had – it even doubles as a place for my family to come if they are in town. It’s been a really great thing.

KE: Do think that the community that encompasses the various studio spaces you’ve had is important to you and your work?

BG: Yes! That’s the main reason why I try to be in a building with other artists. Because most of those people live and work in their studios and they don’t have day jobs, it can be a little difficult to get to know people, but it allows me time to focus. Over at Jackson Street, there was a lot more talking in the hallways and getting to know people, which is also nice, but that’s because they aren’t live-in studios. However, I find that I enjoy the peace-and-quiet here, and the lack of interruptions is nice. I don’t have a whole lot of time when I come here: I need to be focused and efficient. The good news is that I can come here and stay the night for a few nights!

KE: How has your work evolved?

BG: On the website, are three series: the Water series, the Van Gogh series, the Diary of an Island. My Van Gogh series was very much about color again, where I hit one of those rough spots, where I didn’t feel happy with my palette and what was happening. I felt like if I really wanted to understand it, I needed to learn from who I consider to be the greatest colorist: Van Gogh. I started using his palette, which was both challenging and rewarding, but I learned a lot. So, I named the series after him. The Diary of an Island is basically any painting that was inspired by the landscape of living on Bainbridge Island. The Water series was from looking at all the water we have all over the place and the differences in the times of day or the seasons. That whole series was very labor intensive and I haven’t done any of that in a while.

KE: What are you working towards right now?

BG: I’m working on a series right now, which has become somewhat complicated and is more of series within a series. But it is a completely different thing I’m doing. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my entire painting career. And I’ve been painting a long time.

KE: So, this is a pretty big challenge?

BG: It is. Part of it is my trying to do a whole lot of things. I’m a baby boomer and my parents are of the WWII generation. My father fought and my mother, who was British, was part of the British Royal Navy. All my aunts and uncles at one time or another were involved in some way. What happened with that generation though, was that when they came back from the war, they didn’t really talk about it too much. In particular, my parents didn’t really talk about it very much, obviously for good reason – it was very traumatic. The Baby Boomers are known for drugs, sex and Rock’n’Roll – but we are also the sons and daughters of the WWII Generation; something I don’t think anyone has really looked at too much.

KE: How are you looking into this? Historically?

BG: Since both my parents are no longer with us, I decided that I really wanted to find out what was going on: in a historical sense – of course, but I really wanted to trace the steps that my father took. I’ve done a large amount of research, and in that I’m finding the path my father took, the places he fought, and the things he never told me. This series talks about the history, but more importantly explores the silence.

KE: The silence I’m sure makes things a little bit difficult, to say the least.

BG: Yes, definitely. I’m doing these mixed media pieces, which really represents all of that research I’ve done. The Silence series uses a lot of stripes. I’m using a different palette, new inspiration, and various new medias. It’s taking me a lot of time. Some of the paintings have to be done multiple times to get it right. I’m incorporating my familiar landscapes, but those are coming from imagined places and events or literal descriptions from soldiers who participated. It’s huge and vastly different. I didn’t think it was going to be easy, and I knew it would be a different scope than I’m used to, but I’m definitely still learning. I go back and forth, but I feel like I’m really starting to hit my stride.

KE: How do you plan on incorporating that divergence of the series?

BG: I’m having a show in November, and I think I will group them so that they don’t look like they are completely different ideas. I’m a very focused artist, but I’m never going to be one of those artists that can do 500 variations on the same thing – I would get bored <laughs>.

Beverly Gimlin lives on Bainbridge Island and has a studio in the Bemis Building, which she will be opening for the Spring Show on May 15^th. For more information, please email her at bgimlin@gmail.com or visit her website.