Michaela Harlow: A Certain Slant of Light

There is a time of year after trees give up their leaves, when you can see deep into the woods—a world of contrast and subtlety, where gesture and movement are enhanced by veiled light. This change in nature and the new season it brings create a world that Michaela Harlow is drawn to. She lives it in her solitary walks, her plein air work, and her landscape and garden design projects. 

Winter is the season that inspires Harlow, and the indirect light of the sun’s low arc sets the tone for this body of work. She steps into the forest and brings that world to us, combining the energetic immediacy of drawing with techniques traditionally used in oil painting, pastel, and collage. Her two-dimensional works create a universe of marks and  gestures, and so do the found objects—organic arrangements of stones, limbs, and sticks—that complete this universe, revealing what Harlow describes as “the bones of winter.” From eye to hand to paper, rock, and stick, she translates the natural energy of this season into gestures, patterns, and color that give us a personal sense of place and time. 

The title of this exhibition refers to a poem by Emily Dickinson—There’s a certain Slant of light—in which she writes, “When it comes, the Landscape listens – Shadows – hold their breath…” In Harlow’s work, we can see relationships to other artists and themes as well, such as Andrew Goldsworthy and his interaction with nature, Cy Twombly, and Larry Poons, whose gestural mark-making has a particular energy and liquidity of movement that creates interwoven elements of composition. Harlow’s work is ripe with this energy: sometimes spare in color, sometimes producing dashes of vivid color within patterned fields. She takes a step back from a realistic depiction of nature, but leaves us  with an emotional connection to the natural world. 

— Michael Abrams, curator

Spiral bound, looseleaf, or block—I’m rarely without a sketchbook of good paper. In summer, I toss one in my market basket before heading out to work; in winter, one takes up permanent residence in my backpack with a box of soft pastels, vine charcoal, and kneaded eraser.

Working en plein air in New England comes with its own unique set of challenges and rewards. A surprise gust of wind-driven rain or a heavy snow shower may disrupt the process at any moment. However, it is the natural elements themselves, and the meaning we give them, that form the basis of my work. We are intertwined and inseparable.

This installation of sticks, stones, scattered notebook pages, and paintings invites viewers to experience the chaos of creating work outdoors in the dead of winter, when a certain slant of light reveals the shadowy side of nature and the value of embracing all seasons.

— Michaela Harlow

ACCESSIBILITY NOTICE

This exhibit is located in the Ticket Gallery, which requires visitors to ascend five shallow steps with a railing. A virtual tour is coming soon. 

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