My Work
I consider my artistic process a mysterious and unconscious intention where every brushstroke evokes new potential and continually leads me to ask myself the question "What's next?" My inspiration comes from many places; however, I gravitate toward my own dreams as a source and stepping-off point for creating the imagery in my paintings. These images emerge from deep within the psyche of the painting, exposing both emotional and physical energies.
My art allows me to become the ultimate Alchemist. I am always awed and inspired by the transmutation and synergy that occurs as the medium and the surface interact. My process is simultaneously exciting and gut-wrenching. There are pieces that I consider 'fresh' (e.g. swishes and marks, bold and fine, quick and economically applied) and others that force me to search through additions and subtractions of line, form, color, and texture....similar to the ongoing adding and substracting process many artists who sculpt go through. The use of color and form continually demand that I decipher and analyze, unequivocally.
Southwest corner of studio working area. Land Grab 1 on front easel.
OVER THE THRESHOLD: The Continuum. (Partial installation of Solo Exhibition, 2017.)
BEYOND THE LINES, in progress, 2017.
“Whenever I visit Bernadette, I never know what will happen to the last painting I saw that was in process..... She has an uncanny way of resolving the most simple or complex that transforms it into a unique statement. It seems to be an amalgam of chemistry and magic that makes her work stand alone amongst all others.”
“Bernadette Howard paints at the local intersection of form and content where process and meaning collide, inviting the curious viewer closer to see what ‘ambient alchemy’ is happening in the single frame of her canvas. She backgrounds the square inches of her organic field by sculpting abstractionist layers of textured color. She often foregrounds that morphing rectangle with diverse intuitive figurations which illustrate her hamunist interests in nature, in the ecology of the human body, and - in her character portraits - the dramatic geography of the revealed face. I have collected three of her paintings.”
“Thank you for this show (OVER THE THRESHOLD: The Continuum), it was deeply moving for me, and seeing the work reminded me of a statement once said by Rothko:
Mark Rothko: “I am not interested in relationships of color or form or anything else...I am interested in only expressing the basic human emotions - tragedy, ecstasy, doom and so on...And if you, as you say, are moved only by their color relationships, then you miss the point.”
And, thank you for the useful revelation of creating a limit for a creative act.”