MARC WINNAT: TAKING A DIRECT APPROACH

12 FOR OUR 12TH
MARC WINNAT WORK ON VIEW AT VERMONT ARTISAN DESIGNS
108 MAIN STREET
BRATTLEBORO, VERMONT

by Marguerite Serkin

At a time when generalities and purposeful ambiguity often dominate our cultural discourse, the acrylic paintings of Marc Winnat offer welcome relief. The precision and detail of Winnat’s paintings celebrate their subjects with directness, and with a certainty of substance and form.

On view at Vermont Artisan Designs Gallery in Brattleboro, the current collection of Winnat’s paintings provides a rare opportunity to explore the compelling themes and intrinsic nuance of this fervently reclusive artist’s work. Although his technique and approach to the medium have been recognized by the Allied Artists of America and the National Society of Painters in Casein and Acrylic, among others, the artist remains deliberately sequestered, preferring to draw on his innate creative resources.

“Once I started figuring out the process of manipulating the paint to get my desired effect, it just took off,” the artist remarked from his New Hampshire home. “Now, I don’t have anything against other artists and think sometimes how it would be nice to discuss aspects of that world with peers in this field. My life is just not aligned to support that at this time.

“I remember back in the 1990s I was in New Haven and decided to visit the Yale Art Gallery. Two paintings by Piet Mondrian of his incredible grids just floored me. At that time, I was experimenting with negative space in realism to create depth. Studying those two paintings opened up so many new doors in my head with ideas I still successfully use. I just enjoy it alone and let it feed my art.”

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