Bloomfield artist Stanwyck Cromwell is known throughout the Hartford area for his jewel-bright oils-on-canvas with references to the folklore and traditions of his native Guyana. But when compiling work for his 50-year retrospective at Windsor Art Center, he decided to shake things up a bit.
“Some people want to show a perfect body of work in retrospectives, a more elite vision. They don’t want to show the dirty laundry,” Cromwell said. “I feel a retrospective should show humble beginnings.”
So Cromwell did that. In addition to work in his familiar style, Cromwell also is exhibiting watercolor-gouache landscapes, graphite drawings and experimentation with surrealism that he created early in his career. The earliest piece in the show is a charmingly rustic mahogany carving of a woman, which he made in 1965, his first piece of art.
Cromwell’s reason for becoming an artist was humble, too: “Art was a way of keeping out of trouble. Instead of doing mischievous things, I would retreat and make art. My friends who stayed outside did mischievous things and got in trouble.”
As Cromwell evolved, he focused on Guyana, symbolic representations and the faces of the people. “There is a mystique about faces. Faces tell lies. When I see faces I see different sides of people, not realistically, but spiritually,” he said.
What doesn’t tell lies, though, is the painters’ palette. Cromwell likes creating artwork on palettes, and a few are in the show.
“The palette holds a secret. It has been a witness to you drawing,” he said. “I see palettes as being sacred.”
STANWYCK CROMWELL: REFLECTIONS OF TIME: CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF ARTMAKING is at Windsor Art Center from Saturday, Sept. 17, when it opens with a reception from 5 to 7 p.m., until Oct. 29, when it closes with a reception from 5 to 7 p.m. windsorartcenter.org.
