Into Plein Air
A native of coastal Rye, New Hampshire, Meghan Bergeron 鈥�15 first picked up a paintbrush as a kid to decorate rocks that she and her grandmother found in the ocean. She got into plein air painting 鈥� setting up an easel outdoors and conveying the landscape 鈥� during a class in high school.
鈥淲hen you鈥檙e painting outside,鈥� she says, 鈥測ou really have to adapt to what you鈥檙e seeing very fast to capture the light, and just constantly try to create the color that you鈥檙e seeing. You are trying to capture a movement very quickly. Plein air was the most interactive painting that I have done, and it stuck with me. The experiences of the color and the light resonated.鈥�
A double major in studio art and graphic design, Bergeron didn鈥檛 have time to take to the outdoors when it came to putting together her entry in the senior studio art exhibit, but she incorporated the idea of expressing changing color and light through some of the most evocative scenes from the seacoast 鈥� sunsets. The result: Time Lapse, a progressive series of 10 oil paintings that illustrate the sky at various stages of sundown.
Viewers of the richly textured oil paintings will note, though, that they aren鈥檛 exactly conventional landscapes. The graphic designer in her got her thinking about the sunset in a new way, and so she tipped the paintings on their sides so the horizon is oriented vertically rather than horizontally. 鈥淚 wanted to do something that wasn鈥檛 just a mundane series of sunsets over the ocean,鈥� she says, so she played with the images on her computer. An animation class inspired her to think about playing with time as well, so she made some of the paintings wider than others. 鈥淚t slows down and speeds up the viewer鈥檚 experiences,鈥� she notes, 鈥渁nd adds the element of action that was happening 鈥� so some moments that you look at are kind of brief and some moments are extended.鈥�
She turned a group of vertically oriented canvasses into a horizontal landscape by lining them up side by side. The idea is to recreate, in a new way, the experience of witnessing a sunset. 鈥淚n this piece,鈥� she says, 鈥淚 think of myself as slowing down the time and the experience of it. If you were watching it in real life, it would go by and you wouldn鈥檛 absorb as much. The fact that it is vertical also delays the viewer鈥檚 reaction. It questions what you are perceiving.鈥�
But also, she says, the series is a dense study of color. 鈥淭hat was the immediate spark and connection I had with the paintings.鈥�
Since its appearance in the College鈥檚 annual show for graduating studio arts students, Time Lapse has been exhibited at the Portsmouth (New Hampshire) Music and Arts Center. And Bergeron, after picking up her diploma in May, is looking for a job in the graphic design field. She鈥檚 hoping to pursue work that includes interactive media and motion graphics. As a break from that computer-oriented work, she can always pick up a paintbrush and turn to the natural world, as she did with Time Lapse.
鈥淎 sunset,鈥� she says, 鈥渋s just awe-inspiring beauty. It鈥檚 a temporary glimpse in time I try to capture before it fades away.鈥�