Revealing nature's secrets Former Port artist uncovers mysteries in the everyday world

Lane Williamson understands trees, marshes and dunes. The former resident of Newburyport and Ring's Island in Salisbury has spent most of her life examining them.

"I always say, the better you know trees, the better you understand trees, the better you are able to paint any tree down the line," said Williamson, who now lives in Maine. "I learned a great amount about the marsh and wetlands from living in Newburyport, and I've learned about the dunes and the unspectacular parts of the beach from the Plum Island Reserve."

In a new exhibit titled "Out in the Open Secrets" on display at Newburyport's Firehouse Center for the Arts, Williamson restructures nature's architecture and tempts viewers to challenge their assumptions about the visible world through her oil on canvas paintings.

From the trunk of a tree filled with rain water, leaves and moss to rockweed marooned on a beach at low tide, she said the mysteries of our surroundings serve as the inspiration to finding out the secrets of the natural world.

The Firehouse exhibit is a homecoming for Williamson, who lived in the area for more than 15 years as she raised her two children and worked at the Jeanne Geiger Crisis Center and other local shelters, using art as a way of healing.

Williamson left the area 10 years ago to become one of the 1,000 inhabitants on Peaks Island in Casco Bay of Maine, bringing her closer to nature.

"I like to be out with rocks and trees and in the woods, on the earth," Williamson said. "I'm not a good city person or a neighborhood person. My art is out in nature, a place I feel better understood than with people."

Although Peaks Island may be far from the dunes and sea grass that once inspired her, it is clear through the 37 paintings on exhibit that Williamson's ties to the area remain strong.

"I have deep roots in Newburyport and New England," she said. "I seldom ever paint a dune without thinking of Ring's Island, and when I look at my paintings of Maine, I think they could easily be those of Plum Island looking out toward Newbury."

The natural landscapes in her paintings, such as the barnacle-encrusted boulders slathered with rockweed, highlight the everyday beauty that often goes unnoticed.

Constantly thinking about the balance of a painting, Williamson analyzes the amount of information to provide in each piece and how much to leave up to viewers to discover as part of their own journey.

"If I give you some fabulous Plum Island sunrise, I am making a big statement," Williamson explained. "But if I leave you with some squirmy, wet earth and an odd bit of light way over a hill, I am leaving you with a question and making you do the work."

An art teacher on Peaks Island, Williamson hopes that even if viewers can't understand her paintings, they see art in a new way.

"There are two very different perspectives," she said. "There are beach books, you read them fast, skimming over the words. That type of perspective sees the painting from 40 feet across the room and notices the green in it is the same green as their couch."

The other perspective, she said, gains understanding in a painting of a pond when the piece reaches into a personal experience, allowing the viewer to relate to it on a new level.

"I want to bring people to the table to look at the work and be there with it at whatever level they are ready to do so," she said.

r What: "Out in the Open Secrets," an exhibit showcasing the work of landscape artist and former local resident Lane Williamson

Photos

"Songs for the Stone Child" by Lane Williamson, whose paintings, on display, at Newburyport's Firehouse Center for the Arts, aim to incorporate a balance of biography and narrative. Courtesy photo

"Fallen Branch" by Lane Williamson. Courtesy photo