January 11 - March 9th, 2024
Lee Essex Doyle’s mastery of light, color, and pattern is on full display in her latest series of watercolors, Dancing on the Ceiling. These luminous paintings depict jewel-like lanterns and radiant chandeliers – architectural details drawn from her extensive travels across India, Africa, and Europe. Doyle deftly captures the play of light and shadow across richly patterned surfaces, blurring the line between representation and abstraction to dazzling effect.
As with Doyle’s earlier work, the paintings in Dancing on the Ceiling are drawn from her frequent and far-flung travels. Inspired by the art and culture of each new location, Doyle combines architectural elements, ornate design motifs, and vibrant color to evoke an authentic sense of place. The focused subject of Doyle’s most recent work further highlights her remarkable ability to fix the impression of a particular location using only small details. Here Doyle distills the essence of a place down to its most basic elements: light, color, and pattern.
In Dancing on the Ceiling, brilliant light fixtures cast intricate patterns of light and shadow across the patterned ceilings they adorn. The heightened contrast of radiant light increases the visual perception of line and shape. Doyle’s layered arrangements of light and shadow merge with architectural patterns and design motifs to push her paintings further into abstraction that she has yet ventured. At times, the physical light fixtures appear almost obliterated by their own brilliance. The resulting paintings offer a dazzling array of vibrant hues and tessellated patterns, pushing the limits between representation and abstraction.
Julie Edwards, Director
Childs Gallery
168 Newbury Street
Boston, MA 02116
(617) 266-1108