The Stewart Gallery is currently home to a collection of Midwestern artist Tilly Woodward’s paintings, called “A Closer Look.” Your diligent reporter is currently preparing for the opening of a little show called True West (covered elsewhere in this very issue of the S&B), which also takes place in the Grinnell Arts Center, and stopped by the Stewart Gallery before rehearsal to take a closer look at Woodward’s show.
Woodward obtained a BFA and MFA in Kansas, and now serves as Curator of Academic and Community Outreach at Grinnell College’s Faulconer Gallery. Her artwork has been shown in over 191 galleries and museums nationwide. Woodward’s specialty is small, intricately detailed oil paintings. These paintings are what “A Closer Look” is primarily comprised of. Many of the paintings are close-ups of nature, such as “Scapes” (depicting a tangle of green flower stalks on a black background) and “Chicken” (depicting, of course, an elegant portrait of a red-wattled chicken in profile).
A binder in the gallery available for patrons’ perusal provided some more background on the exhibit. Woodward said, “[my] early relationship with the world was largely solitary and largely visual. … I still spend as much time as I can just looking closely at things.”
Indeed, Woodward’s care for each of her subjects, whatever they may be, comes through in the intense level of detail in her works. The humanity of Woodward’s hyper-realistic paintings makes them feel more realistic. Woodward depicted the subjects of each painting with a certain tenderness that presumably speaks to her own viewpoint, effectively showing the viewer Woodward’s specific perspective on the world. Woodward’s paintings are surprisingly intimate, and more lifelike than a macro photograph would be.
Not all of Woodward’s paintings are grounded in reality; some of the paintings, especially those produced on commission from Grinnell College to commemorate the winners of the Grinnell Prize, veer towards the more surreal, such as 2018’s painting in honor of SoScience, which portrayed pink and yellow gerbera daisies on a background of copper gears. The juxtaposition of realistically-painted objects in surreal combinations highlights Woodward’s eye for symbolism and purposefulness of her artistic choices.
After True West rehearsal ended, I went back downstairs to the gallery to get another look at Woodward’s pieces. The gallery was empty and dark. I flicked on a few of the Arts Council’s many switches and perused Woodward’s exhibit once more, cocooned in the solitary peace of the Arts Center after hours. The grandeur and age of the building can be somewhat intimidating, especially in the dark, but standing there observing Woodward’s carefully, deliberately-rendered close-ups, on display within the walls of a building representing the history of the town of Grinnell, I felt suddenly connected to humanity, even though I was the only soul in sight.
Woodward’s exhibit has paintings, framed prints, unframed prints, and cards available for purchase. The exhibit runs from April 4 to May 2.
