About the Artist by Lauren Tresp
Mary Helen Follingstad’s paintings are dynamic meditations on truths gleaned from the natural world. Whether realist or abstract, these works often conjure the contours of a horizon, the light of sunrise, or the textures of earth. These meditations, which often take shape as abstracted visions of color and form, draw us both deeper into reflection on the world around us and simultaneously lead us to peer into an otherworld—one of imagination and contemplation. Within the hard matter of rock and sky, the artist sees spirit and light.
Follingstad has produced work in different styles, including both abstraction and realism, in media spanning oil, acrylic, watercolor, gouache, and sumi ink. Her most recent works are abstracted oil paintings in vibrant, glowing palettes. These works represent a mature culmination of several threads that characterize much of her work: an expressionistic sensibility, an eye for distilling essential forms, and a masterful balance between fluid, open forms and grounding, linear gestures.
The artist’s earlier work primarily took shape as landscape painting in watercolor and gouache. These earlier works can be seen as expressionistic interpretations of the land, dominated by poignant fields of color and punctuated by minimalist shapes of mesas, mountain ridges, and desert brush. They have within them the seeds of abstraction that she is now exploring in full. While there is kinship with the Taos Moderns in her work, the artist also cites influences including Fauvism, Surrealism, and Der Blaue Reiter. Follingstad’s works reflect aspects of each of these distinct schools, including a strong emphasis on the energy and communicative potential of strong color fields that interact within the picture plane. The work also shares in these lineages in her exploration of spirit. In her artist statement, she says, “When I paint I am always aware of intrinsic abstraction in the world I observe, and compositions of line, shapes, rhythm, and color images emerge. My paintings – like Haiku – are unique observations of being and spirit in the moment.”
Follingstad’s work comes from a personal relationship with the sights and experience of the natural world, and she often paints in an outdoor studio. Her vision, in tune with the rhythm and pulse of the world around her, is tangible in her ability to yoke color and form to her subtle perceptions. Far from formulaic or over-worked, each image strikes a balance between inspired spontaneity and an experienced hand. Her finished surfaces, especially in her most recent oil paintings, are smooth and richly saturated. The paint, often in mesmerizing palettes of red, ochre, and rose, vibrates across the surface of the canvas or paper, capturing the drama of a rain cloud or the serenity of a desert snowfall. Much like these experiences behold an infinite variety of subtle nuances, each painting is but one iteration of the infinite possibilities inherent in the shifting relationships between line, color, and shape.
These compelling compositions in which we can relish and contemplate worldly phenomena ask us to engage ever more authentically with our world; the heightened awareness and joy that accompanies this engagement is one of the highest callings of art. Follingstad’s work answers this call with refreshing curiosity and sincerity.
Follingstad holds an MFA from the University of Colorado and a BFA from the University of Denver. She is a native of Santa Fe, and her work has been exhibited widely in New Mexico since the early 2000s.
Lauren Tresp is an art writer based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She has written about visual arts for local and national publications. She holds a Master of Arts in Humanities from the University of Chicago, and a Bachelor of Arts in Art History and History from UCLA. www.laurentresp.com