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It’s been a minute since Nicholas Kent has exhibited his art.
Once a prolific painter living in Jamaica Plain, Kent said he showed his work a lot. Back then it was large scale abstracts, some 4 feet by 4 feet, he said. When he moved to Marblehead, he had limited space and found himself scaling back, but he also found that as his art got smaller, it evolved.
“I was working a lot with the landscape, basically using the boatyard kind of detritus … just working a lot with the wood you find, just kind of taking raw material and transforming it into a piece of art,” he said.
Kent said he took his time, always working but kind of in the background, creating new pieces but not rushing anything, making things that simply felt right. And he watched his work go in a new direction.
He described it as still abstract, but also more intimate because you have to get up close to really appreciate it.
“Which is really the polar opposite of my JP work, which was just huge wall stuff,” he said.
Then, all of a sudden, he looked around and found his place was full of artwork and he could begin to see how it could all be linked together, Kent said.
“So, I started making a more conscious effort to create a real body of work that tied together, in the last couple months,” he said.
The result is “Of Sad Hours & Happy Days,” now open at the Stetson Gallery in the Unitarian Universalist Church of Marblehead. The show will be on display through the month of October, with an opening reception Sunday, Oct. 11, from 12-2 p.m. and the public is invited.
The title, Kent said, is very internal logic, his logic, a conversation that drives him and but one he’s not sure will translate to the visual for some. It’s the idea that life is very routine, mundane if you will, by nature. It’s about running errands and filling time and boredom, then you hit middle age and wonder, ‘what am I doing with my life?’ he said.
“And you realize life is really a lot about these little details we take care of every day and the idea is, we can take great joy in that – knowing that that’s really life itself,” Kent said. “When you kind of embrace all that stuff, you realize that those kinds of sad hours add up to really happy days.”
What to expect
“They can expect, I think, a real adhesive body of work, and I think it’s a lot of fun,” Kent said, regarding the show. “I think they tie together in an odd way … and there’s a fun narrative that runs throughout.
Along with a boatyard wood motif that runs through all his work, Kent said visitors will also see a lot more “painterly stuff going on, which is kind of new, newish to me.” Although he’s always painted, Kent said he thought perhaps it was a dead medium, so he’d push toward mixed media. But this new exhibit has brought him back to basics, spending time painting small pictures and drawing, a lot.
“You know, when you look at the masters, you know, Matisse painted these ordinary still lifes, they’re masterful,” he said, referring to the French visual artist known for his use of color. “Or (Italian painter Giorgio) Morandi, he just painted still lifes. Tons of people did that.”
Kent said the subjects or mundane, which fits, but it’s the way you embrace them, that can be extraordinary.
The 411
Opening Reception: Oct. 11, 12-2 p.m.
Unitarian Universalist Church of Marblehead, 28 Mugford St.
Or check out his work at www.artistnick.com | @armchairbuddha.
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