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Amy
Bartlett Wright preserves Narragansett Bay in living color
How do you capture an entire Bay in 300 square feet?
You begin with years of experience: years of living near the shore;
years of studying Bay habitat and marine life; years of filling 3-ring
binders with notes and sketches; years of working in the studio. Artist
Amy Bartlett Wright, born and raised on Chesapeake Bay and a Rhode Island
resident for the past 23 years, knows Narragansett Bay.
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Amy was commissioned to paint a large-scale Bay mural that adorns
our Education wing. The painting, which measures 30x10 feet and
depicts more than 50 species and plants common to Narragansett Bay,
was installed in late December 2005 and publicly unveiled February
16, 2006.
View
the complete mural.
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Standing before “Our Living Bay” is like being transported into another
world. To get there, it took Amy a lot more than tapping her heels
together. The journey, which began in December 2004, involved trips to
aquatic exhibits from New Bedford to New York, hundreds of photographs, a
freezer full of collected specimens, and dedicated painting nine hours a
day, six days a week for seven months.
“The purpose of this piece is two-fold,” the artist notes. “It is to
identify species and show ways they relate to each other.”
To assist her in this goal, Amy tapped STB staff and called upon
ichthyologists and local fishermen for guidance on creature habitats and
behavior. Viewers of the final mural learn that sea stars feed on blue
mussels, bluefish stalk menhaden and cormorants dive for their dinner.
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canvas, Amy went through a lengthy design and feedback process with
STB Habitat and Education staff to determine the mural’s contents
and layout. Once painting began, Amy referred to both her visual
reference palette and ideas in her head. She worked on one section
at a time, periodically stepping away from the canvas to let it
marinate. |
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Painting each of the Bay
creatures was a detailed process. After intensive research of plant
and animal species, Amy placed her black and white illustrations on
the mural, moving them around as advised by her team of experts.
Once a creature’s size and position was set, she transferred the
illustration onto the canvas in pencil, then painted over it—first
in a blue “shadow color” to give herself a “fresh” canvas—then in
full color, referring to her collection of photographs and species
models. |
How long does it take to
complete an animal? Well, Amy spent eight weeks painting the creatures
into the mural—the school of striped bass took five days, and even then
she kept returning to add final touches while she worked on other areas.
“With the addition of the creatures, the scene came alive,” says Amy.
“I feel I have accomplished this unseeable, ideal landscape.”
She used Nova Color acrylic paint—made especially for murals and meant
to last around 100 years—on 100% cotton canvas that took two people half a
day to stretch onto her studio wall.
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Amy encountered two major challenges. The first: incorporating a
cross section of numerous Bay habitats in such a small space and
achieving the 3-dimensionality that is always a goal in her murals.
With this piece—through manipulation of color, light/dark and
perspective—she created a space in which the viewer feels she is
underwater with the Bay creatures.
The second challenge stems from the first—how to handle the
distorted perspective of being underwater and looking up onto the
land. Amy wants the viewer to have that impossible point of view
without it being a distraction.
“This is probably the most challenging painting I’ve ever done
because I’m having to conceptualize so much of it,” the artist
states. “I drew on things I know to create an underwater landscape
that is made up.” |
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The finished mural has a dramatic
subtext. The water is bluer than you find in most parts of the Bay. And
Amy’s portrait won’t show a single sign of pollution or invasive shoreline
development. It’s not a documentary; it’s a vision of the Bay we want.
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“The nature of the colors I’ve used gives an
overall feeling that’s positive and optimistic; it calms your
emotions,” says Amy.
Knowing that this work of art will be a
large-scale teaching tool for all who enter the Bay Center, she
adds, “I hope this mural captivates people for longer periods of
time and causes them to be engaged in it. I want it to have staying
power.” |
While it still hung in her Portsmouth
studio, Amy coated the painting with a protective acrylic varnish, which
made the canvas washable and flexible enough to be rolled around a tube
for transportation. Installation at the Bay Center of the 30x10-foot mural
(weighing about 100 pounds) involved three people to fit and adhere the
canvas to the Education wing wall.
The artist worked on site for a few weeks doing touch-ups before
applying a final coat of varnish to protect the mural.
“I want kids to be able to touch this piece,” she remarks. “Touching is
an intimate thing and it makes viewing the mural a more personal
experience.”
Amy’s enthusiasm about her relationship with Save The Bay and her
pleasure in this work runs high. “I enjoy projects like this that
challenge and inspire me in new ways.”
"Our LIving Bay" was funded by The Royal Caribbean
International/Celebrity Cruise Lines Ocean Fund and the Sachem Foundation.
About the Artist
Amy Bartlett
Wright, who lives in Portsmouth, RI, with her husband and two sons,
has worked for over 20 years as a freelance muralist and scientific
illustrator. She received a BA in Scientific Illustration from University
of Maryland in 1980. While at UM, Amy served an internship at the
Smithsonian Institution. She furthered her studies in painting and drawing
at Rhode Island School of Design where she earned a Certificate of
Scientific and Technical Illustration in 1990 and is now part of the
RISD/CE faculty.
Some of her recent murals include:
• Sachuest Point Mural, Sachuest
Point National Wildlife Refuge, Middletown, RI
• Woodland Stream Mural,
Boston Museum of Science
• Bears’ Den Cafe Mural, Buttonwood Park Zoo,
New Bedford, MA | 
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This article reproduced from the Save the Bay website - with their kind permission.
