“First Light” Essay by Anna Friedrich, January 2025

Cynthia Packard’s new solo show offers several boat portraits, a first for our gallery. The leading image, Three Boats, is an elaborate composition with a rich, balanced palette and delicate brushwork. The central line falls on the partly obscured mast of the middle boat, done in azure blue; captain’s bridge, in bright orange and lemon yellow, marks the center of the painting and contrasts sharply with a splash of ocean blue directly underneath the boat. The boat to the right, in soft red browns, balances the summery greens of its sister to the left. All three bows are catching the first rays of the rising sun and shine with festive white. The foreground, with its alternating strokes of turquoise, periwinkle, and cerulean blue, similarly projects vigor and clean energy. The varied angles of the boats, the shimmery blues of the foreground, the subtly striped air convey constant bobbing of the craft, gentle rippling of the waves, and swiftly changing morning seascape, as the night and the mist retreat into the background. 

The two single boat portraits, Red Sail and After the Sail, should be companion pieces. The sail crafts here are as prominent as their reflections; the cornflower blue of the water is balanced by the olive green and orange of the sails—a curious and somewhat unnerving combination. The black lines of the original sketch are visible underneath the paint, giving the impression of velocity and lightness. The same is true, to an even greater extent, of the two marina paintings, In the Marina and especially McMillan Wharf. The latter masterfully combines exposed canvas, original black drawing—skeleton of the painting—and wide patches of, yet again, olive green and cornflower blue, livened by two splashes of chartreuse in the lower right corner. Almost abstract, it needs to be viewed from a distance to discern the central white boat and the dark teal craft in the left corner. Up close, it becomes a vague, slightly ominous abstraction of nocturnal marine colors.

These two techniques, untreated canvas and exposed original drawing, are rarely seen in Packard’s work, as she likes to recycle and paint over her surfaces. It is a treat to see them crop up in the show: in Collection, McMillan Wharf, and the delightful smaller Blue Floral. They make Collection appear transparent and ethereal and give the oil painting immediacy of a watercolor sketch. Collection is echoed by Gift, where only a few strategic patches of canvas and two precise lines of black across the vase are present. The other still lifes in the show are equally strong and fresh, not a single palette repeats another, the most unusual being Roses, where shades of olive green are balanced by peach and salmon pink of the bouquet pushed away from the center almost to the edge. 

Similar to McMillan Wharf, the new nude in the show, Indulgence, also verges on abstract, with its thick black contouring, broad stretches of a single color, and sharp angular forms, like the white triangle of the shoulder in the forefront. The other two nudes, Certain and The Bow, are softer, with a gentler palette and more varied brushwork. It is up to the viewer to conjure an emotion behind each image: desire, fatigue, readiness… Every painting in the show, large or small, boat, nude or still life, delivers an emotional impulse behind it, which is a particle of the artist, always unmistakable and unique, a mark of true art.