Brookline artist Anita Jamieson is fascinated with color. She enjoys its many personalities especially within the medium of watercolor. Her paintings, now on display at HC Studio on Station Street, offer a vibrant snapshot of our everyday worlds, highlighting the many textures, shapes, hues, and tones of citrus, flowers, vegetables, and more. Inspired by the details within a piece of fruit or the shapes and colors of a cloud, Jamieson’s work encourages viewers to experience the subjects of her paintings in a transformative light.
Raised in Brookline, Jamieson was always interested in art, frequently visiting and taking classes at the nearby Museum of Fine Arts. She pursued a career in education, working in schools in and around Boston, first as a teacher and eventually a school principal. When she retired, she began taking watercolor classes at the Brookline Art Center. She has been painting ever since and showcases her art around town and at local open studios exhibitions.
Jamieson was drawn to watercolor because of the aesthetic opportunities it presents. “Watercolor is a fascinating medium,” she states. “It can be transparent, opaque, dark, bright, there’s so much to it. There’s a diversity that I think is beautiful.”
Indeed, Jamieson’s paintings certainly display the versatility of the medium. In Color Jam, one of the works on display at HC Studio, Jamieson presents an abstract composition of lively colors, each with a different degree of saturation and opacity. A central vein of the painting is a deep royal blue that reveals a slight haze or cloudiness towards the bottom of the canvas but becomes clear and reflective as it moves throughout. In another painting of garden cosmos, Jamieson explores the variety of color tone on each petal, presenting a soft, pastel-like pink on some flowers and a vibrant fuchsia on others.
Often working from photographs, Jamieson takes an inventive approach to viewing and painting her subjects. She’ll sometimes place a piece of glass over objects to distort them or paint certain items from a deliberate perspective, as demonstrated in her series of sliced fruits and vegetables. The paintings capture close up details of sliced oranges, pomegranates, red onion, and more. She reveals a glowing green on the inside a kiwi and transparent rainbows of red and orange in the flesh of a tomato. In describing her motivation for such portraits, she said, “Say you go to Whole Foods and see fruit, and you pick a grapefruit. You think, ‘sure it’s a grapefruit,’ but there’s more. When you open that grapefruit, you notice the colors, the different shapes, and textures of the meat. It opens your eyes to things you might not necessarily see or notice.”
For Jamieson, the creative process is an integral part of life. She explained that we exercise for physical strength and have friends and family for love and emotional support. With work, we might seek cognitive challenges, and being creative is another one of the pieces that make us whole. With watercolor, the creative potential is unending. It can bring surprises, challenges, and breakthroughs. Jamieson shared, “You don’t have complete control in watercolor. Sometimes you want to let the water do the work. It can do things you don’t expect.” Embracing these improvisations is a source of inspiration that ignites Jamieson’s passion for painting.
Jamieson’s work is not limited to paper. A few years ago, she was inspired to print her designs onto fabric. When we met recently for coffee, she was wearing a shirt on which one of her paintings is printed. As we talked, she charmingly explained that the many colors in her art allow it to complement almost any outfit.
Six of Jamieson’s paintings will be on display at HC Studio through the end of June. Half of the proceeds from purchases will go to support the annual Brookline Youth Awards and the Brookline Emergency Food Pantry.
