Lois Dodd’s House at Island Heights, NJ, 1987, is a compelling oil on board painting that highlights the sweetness of the everyday in the close-up scene of a home. An image easy to find oneself in, the overgrown greenery and elegantly painted, luminous blue sky that frame the yellow, classic seashore colonial-style home are reminiscent of a summer seen on the east coast. The loose brushwork of the trees and bushes recalls the breeze felt walking through an open field, spurring the excitement of coming inside to the warmth of loved ones. The scene is one both ordinary and quite specific in that it renders a subject that could be found anywhere, and yet captures a very acute feeling of discovery, nostalgia, and return. Whether or not one has come across this vista before,this scene conjures up the emotions of whimsy and intrigue that accompany an imagined walk through a field and coming upon a home.
“At first I used to drive around, scouting for the motif, and then I realized the motif is right here — just open the door or look out the window,” said the painter. “It comes to you.”
Dodd’s practice has spanned seven decades and is rooted in such observation paintings that subtly capture and elevate the motif of the everyday. Over the course of her tenure in the art world, Dodd has remained a steadfast and important figure in the New York art scene. She maintained lifelong friendships with art world champions like Alex Katz. Her paintings are moments in time frozen and expanded to last forever, parts of daily life that can be entered in memory or, perhaps, through imagined daydreams. The accessibility of House at Island Heights, NJ places it firmly within Dodd’s oeuvre, as it is a testament to the universal quality of her work; the observational aesthetic of her painting, the encapsulation of profoundly and importantly ordinary scenes, is what gives her painting such power.
Not unlike the Impressionists, who predate the work by a century, Dodd works to capture her surroundings as they are, showing the beauty of simple tableaus, namely landscapes and interiors. In doing so, Dodd makes herself a staunchly democratic painter, providing access to the elegant simplicity of daily life. Exposing the beauty and value of what may often be passed by and certainly rarely captured in oil, Dodd reminds one of the value of slowing down, pausing to take in the splendor and uniqueness of each vignette.