Claire McConaughy's Intimate Landscapes at The Painting Center Explore Nature's Strangeness

Claire McConaughy presented 15 paintings at The Painting Center in New York City from October 29 to November 23, 2019. Her exhibition, titled 'Not So far Away,' featured closely cropped landscapes that initially appear picturesque but reveal a fraught sense of strangeness upon closer inspection. Works like 'Suede Blue Lake' (2019) and 'Cerulean Lake' (2019) demonstrate her deft touch and economy in creating spatial illusions, with water and trees rendered in swirling blues and grays. McConaughy's approach echoes the painterly directness of New York School artists Alex Katz and Lois Dodd, while her light touch recalls Raoul Dufy. The exhibition included paintings such as 'Appearance' (2019), 'Sweet Green View' (2019), 'Redon and the Sun' (2019), 'Dream Sunset' (2019), 'Beach Pine' (2019), and 'Interlaced Sunset' (2019), which embrace risk and wildness with psychedelic skies and gestural trees. Her work reflects an identification with the natural world, reminiscent of poet Mary Oliver's writings, and moves beyond familiar security into dreamlike awareness.