Review by Rebecca M. Alvin
On October 4 of this year, the Provincetown Art Association and Museum (PAAM) honored artist Don Beal at their annual gala. The Syracuse, New York born artist has been painting in Provincetown for four decades now, capturing the wildness of the landscape in an ever-expanding body of work, a fraction of which is on view now at PAAM. His attention to the female forms is disinterested and basic when compared with his understanding of certain elements of the landscape.
The work is a lesson in painting for the uninitiated. For example, his painting, Woods and Fox (2018) grabs your attention the moment you enter the Ross Moffett Gallery. Looking at the work from across the room the illusion of light cutting through the trees is somewhat magical, but as you approach the canvas and come close up you can see the markings that created that light. Either vantage point allows for great appreciation of Beal’s work, whether it is the impact it has or the techniques he uses to create that impact.
Beal is a master painter of the woods, although there are also beach scenes and even florals, the most dynamic of which is Night Blooms (2017). But it is his mastery of light and shadow that enable him to capture the life in the woods that is most impressive to this viewer. I’d even go so far as to say he appears to be more interested in the natural environment than in the human and animal forms that periodically show up in the works. For example, in his 2010 painting, Invented Landscape there is a figure in red way in the distance. Or his painting The Swimming Place (2023), which naturally features two women in swimsuits, seems more about the dramatic cloud formations in the sky and that surprising light on the trees, coming from the right side of the canvas, like when a storm passes by on the Cape, but doesn’t actually land, creating a stark atmosphere, simultaneously light from the sun and darkened by the sky. The figures themselves, and the dogs that accompany them are simply forms and blocks of color, without distinct facial features, for example. The overarching tone is one of contrast and drama in the environment, something Beal excels at in just about all of the works I’ve seen by him over the years.
The works in this exhibition demonstrate why Beal was chosen as this year’s honoree. I only wish they were displayed in a larger room with more of his incredible works to take in and enjoy.
Don Beal’s work is on view at PAAM, 460 Commercial St., Provincetown, through November 9. For more information, call 508.487.1750 or visit paam.org
