If a gallery decided to display Francis Beaty’s acrylics, watercolors and mixed media pieces in separate rooms, you might think it was an exhibit featuring three different artists. Her admirable versatility flows from a quest to share fresh perspectives with her audience. For the past 40 years, she has successfully embraced diligence in design and ludic exploration to produce pieces that inspire reflection and deeper inquiry.
A typically marvelous trip to Italy as a high school senior altered Beaty’s creative trajectory. Directly experiencing the works of da Vinci, Michelangelo and seeing the ruins of Pompeii thoroughly recalibrated this burgeoning artist’s sensibilities. Architects John and Gwen Michael, as well as her classes in oil, watercolor and mixed media at the Baum School, continued to shape her keen sense of design, scale, texture and color.
Sometimes elements conspire to block an artistic path so a new one can emerge. Such was the case in the ‘90s in her sweltering fourth-floor Allentown studio. The weather was so hot that painting became impossible. She canalized her creative energy by manipulating a roll of window screening into a freestanding sculpture. The process was so satisfying that she launched into an entire series entitled “Screenplay.” In 2015, she executed an exciting installation at The Cigar Factory in Allentown.
Beaty shares, “I transformed a studio space into a completely white room covering windows and the floor and placed over 40 amorphous screen sculptures in the room. I suspended them from the walls and ceiling and piled some on the floor. Dimly lit with rotating white lights and ambient music, people entered the room to experience a sense of that serenity that I felt making these sculptures.”
Beaty is staying busy with multiple shows and events this year. Check out her solo show this fall/winter at RE:find in Easton.
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