In a recent series of encaustic works, artist and Castle Hill director Cherie Mittenthal turns her attention to storms and boats. The pieces, she says, are influenced by her lifelong fascination with the weather. As with the Cape’s winter storms, there is both dramatic excitement and vulnerability in these pieces. —Abraham Storer
Q: What is this image made of?
This is an encaustic painting on panel. With a green boat a friend of mine found on Ballston Beach. It’s cardboard and was in about 15 pieces and covered with sand and seaweed. Somebody had made it, maybe from a kit, and it was lost — I have a whole story about it in my head. I spent an entire weekend putting the boat back together and painting it.
Q: Is the 3D element new to your work?
I’ve been making these stormy paintings and putting a shelf, often made of clay, inside them. The shelf is a way to break me out of two dimensions. I’ve also been really into welding these days. Part of me really wants to be more sculptural.
Q: Do you like storms?
I have always been affected by the weather. I was kind of brainwashed to love a good storm. My mother would wake us up, no matter what time it was, and force us to have cookies and milk and hang out in storms. I study the weather a lot. One of my claims to fame is that I do “weather reports.” I go out in storms and tell what the weather will be that day or the week to come. I’m usually right. Storms are getting bigger and scarier, and more people are affected by them. We live in a very tender place where we have water on both sides.
Q: Your colors are understated here. Are these your winter colors?
The off-season is generally when I make most of my art. It’s when have energy. I also love the quiet and the light. I have a lot of work where everything is gray with only a bit of blue. I didn’t really get the sense that they were so gray, because I was painting them in the winter. Now color has been popping in a bit. Part of that is the influence of boats I saw in Thailand that were really bright colors. I’ve been enjoying the gray and monotone with a splash of color from a boat or another element in the painting.
