Crew

Louise Hamlin, American, born 1949

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2021

Oil on canvas

Overall: 40 × 50 in. (101.6 × 127 cm)

Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through the Winky Fund and the Virginia and Preston T. Kelsey 1958 Fund

© Louise Hamlin

2022.29

Geography

Place Made: United States, North America

Period

21st century

Object Name

Painting

Research Area

Painting

Not on view

Label

Early one foggy morning, Hamlin spotted Long Wind Farm in East Thetford, Vermont, and was drawn to the warm interior light of its greenhouse. She returned later to paint it, with permission, and discovered that tomato seedlings grew inside. One day, Hamlin found the greenhouse dark: the seedlings, matured, had been transferred to another building. Instead of the glowing interior light, she painted the bright, reflected artificial one and the softer, natural light of dawn.

"My parents said that ‘light’ was my first word," Hamlin has said. "Both natural and artificial light have played a huge part in my work." In this series, she explores the interplay between the sources of light and our experiences of it: direct or diffuse, artificial or natural, reflected from without or glowing from within. This interconnection is core to Hamlin’s work: "Every place I paint has been engineered to some degree by human presence, which I’m glad to acknowledge but reluctant to emphasize."

From the 2022 exhibition In the Moment: Recent Work by Louise Hamlin, curated by Amelia Kahl, Barbara C. & Harvery P. Hood 1918 Curator of Academic Programming

Course History

SART 20/SART 71, Drawing II/III, Jen Caine, Spring 2022

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