British painter Jill Barthorpe creates a crystalline world of light and color by cutting facets into space, the
way a lapidary shapes a gem. Her 40 oil landscapes and still lifes, now appearing at Clarke Galleries at Cold
Comfort Farm in Stowe, capture shimmering moments in time. Barthorpe, a graduate of the prestigious Slade School
of Art in London, has garnered an international reputation from her 20-year career. This exhibition demonstrates
why her paintings are so highly esteemed.
Barthorpe cuts and crafts slivers of light in a Cezanne-esque manner, focusing on the geometric properties of her
subjects as well as the spaces that surround them. Her penchant for disassembling, polishing and reconstructing
planes is especially apparent in her still lifes. An example is "Coral Geraniums." The 28-by-20-inch painting
depicts a gray ceramic vase full of leafy flowers with small...