By Gussie Fauntleroy
Like memory fragments with edges erased by time, Cary Henrie’s landscapes seem to emerge from a glowing sepia haze. There are patches of trees sometimes, or the shimmer of water, or simply vast expanses in richly earth-toned hues. “I take the landscape I love—with no people or structures—and give it a feeling of texture and age,” Henrie explains, “almost like a tinted or cracked old photo on top of weathered sandstone or wood.” To achieve this effect he spends hours adding and removing paint, often working over a layer of plaster and sometimes scratching in with pencil, leaving marks suggestive of half-remembered words.
Raised in Utah, Henrie studied art at Pratt Institute in New York City and painted there for 10 years before returning to his home state. Now 44, he lives in Bountiful, UT, and draws inspiration from the western landscape as well as his study of Italian frescos and the old masters. Underlying all his work, he says, is a quietly contemplative intent: “There’s that Japanese Zen idea that looking at the natural landscape is soothing to the soul.” Henrie’s art is at Coda Gallery, Palm Desert, CA, and New York, NY; Meyer Gallery, Park City, UT; James Ratliff Gallery, Sedona, AZ; Edmund Craig Gallery, Fort Worth, TX; and Deloney Newkirk Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM, where a show of his paintings runs February 10-24.
Featured in “Artists to Watch” January 2006