Landscape artist reaches beyond the predictable

The following review of the Chelmsford Library show appeared in the Lowell Sun on Dec 29, 2001. This article is re-printed with permission. All rights are reserved by the author.

Still, within this genre, Linda Puiatti's work at the Chelmsford Public Library through Jan. 31, 2002 goes beyond common predictability. Yes, she paints familiar landscape subjects: hidden woods decorated with dappled sunlight, rocky beaches, ponds highlighted with colorful reflections, and stormy seascapes. But she handles oils to look loose and wet, like watercolors. She usually avoids confining, overpainted details. Instead, she favors strong, stirring shapes, a fluid painting style and a subtle use of color. She evokes, rather than depicts, which makes her work more intimate.

The most stunning paintings are four she calls the "September 11 Series: Sorrow, Anger, Hope and Fear." Painted within three days of the terrorist attacks in New York, where Puiatti once lived, each piece features often-violent splashes of color around, behind and in front of rectangles representing the World Trade Center buildings. The color schemes change from bright blues, to stark slabs of red and black, to large forms of green, to the darkest, saddest reds, blacks and greens -- all with slashes of hot oranges, purples, yellows and raw canvas.

These powerfully striking, deeply felt, almost abstract paintings are a departure from the rest of this large show, which fills the library's meeting and main reading rooms and stack areas. I'd like to see more from her work that shows such emotion. On another wall are three paintings suggesting strips of water and land underneath varied skies. The largest and more violent picture, "Surf," is dominated by a blue field filled with rain, thunder and breaking clouds churning up the water below. This richly painted, high energy, compelling piece commands attention. "Mother Earth, Father Sky" also is a disturbing but rewarding work. Strong, angular green shapes are set off by a dark blue sky and a streak of cloud. The stark simplicity of this painting contrasts with the easy-going, crowd-pleasing softness of many of her other landscapes. Indeed, when Puiatti sprinkles her surfaces with cute little strokes of bright highlights or colors ("View from the Hill," for example), her work becomes less interesting and more ordinary.

Finally, thanks to the Chelmsford Public Library for opening up its new facilities to talented local artists. But, if it wants to be more valuable to the community, its exhibits should last longer that the current four or five weeks. Shows need to be six weeks to two months long.

By John Greenwald