Augusta Farnum Art Opening

In 2013 Augusta Farnum’s solo show at AMO in Waitsburg marked the transition from the kitchen table and the ephemeral. This was the first in the Garden shows series.  In the late spring, large works graced a wonderful, now defunct art gallery in Waitsburg, Washington. Massive gardens were drawn into raw plaster.  Atmosphere paintings reflecting the time in the evening when everything is possible. A bathroom was commissioned by the gallery, inspired from Augusta's own home.
 
The idea of equivocal space between life and art, was furthered in 2014, at The Telander Gallery. The next solo show, used a new idea called the trigger drawing. A piece is created in the studio from a morning walk, or out in the field. The drawings were then extended into the gallery space, onto the wall, and floated up to the ceiling. The space between structural surfaces and art entwined. Smaller atmosphere paintings were also shown, these were landscape color abstractions.

The purchased work moved out into homes. Accomplishing the extension of the art installation, new murals were drawn to accompany the trigger drawings. The visual poem that had begun as united installation unfolded onto walls all over the world.
 
Meanwhile working to evolve the installation process, new materials were sought that were easier to handle. In the spring of 2014, a mentorship with Philadelphia muralist David Guinn, who had spent the last decade with the Philadelphia City Mural Arts program began.  Farnum began the use of mural fabric, a light material that acts like an armature to paint and can be installed as an interior or exterior mural.  Now, all walls were open to draw on.
 
Which leads to the 2015 Brasserie Four solo spring show, Besides the Garden: New Works. Not only did the drawn landscapes hold the underpinnings of atmosphere paintings, the work was surrounded with 23 k gold. This was the introduction to both the raw verse the precious exploration and was the debut of the interior murals. Looming over head, the drawings encompass the viewer periphery.  A forest wall where Red Osier is bound into balletic contorted shapes and trees line up for a selfie.
 
This fall's solo show at Studio TWOZEROTWO will be the next step in the series. Come see how the stage is set, as the work continues.