Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship for the White River Valley Herald
SOUTH ROYALTON – Tucked away in the Dean Shirley A. Jefferson Gallery of the Vermont Law and Graduate School is a collection bursting with light and vibrancy.
Shelburne artist Lisa Kent began her passion for pastels 14 years ago and haiku in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Together, these mediums comprise her “Vision and Verse” exhibit, currently on display at VLGS through mid-December.
“She will be the person that’s set up outside in front of a tree, for example, and she’s not painting it in its objective color,” said Jenn Ashline, friend and exhibit curator. “She paints very intuitively. I would call her a colorist. I think she knows how to surprise the viewer.”
Kent’s work is based on the plethora of nature surrounding her.
“I don’t have to go far to get inspiration,” said Kent, noting forests, meadows and ponds she frequents in the Champlain Valley. She is an avid gardener as well, and hails 142 types of perennials in her home garden.
However, art was not always Kent’s main career path. Before her decision to pursue art full time 30 years ago, she had received a master’s degree in counseling and worked in the field for 12 years.
“When I was doing counseling, I had an enormous sense of meaning to be able to help people, but I wanted to be creating,” she said.
It wasn’t until she and her husband moved into their Shelburne home and the birth of her son that she was financially able to devote herself to her craft.
Dave Celone, vice president of alumni relations and development at VLGS, spoke highly of “Vision and Verse” and the emotions and memories her 28 pieces evoke.
“The combination of the piece itself, the artwork, the flowers and the haiku just pulls me in and makes me remember those days that are hot and beautiful,” Celone said of the piece “One Day in Summer.”
He said that her collection ties in perfectly with the school’s concern for the environment.
“(Her work) makes sense for this school because here we are, one of the very top, oftentimes the top, environmental law programs in the nation, and people are sort of yearning for nature…This artwork, this show, I feel like merges well with the mission of the school and the students here and what they enjoy seeing,” said Celone.
Kent shared the backstory of her piece “Smothering Clouds,” which she painted the week of her father’s death. Sidney McKeen was a Vermont reporter, editor, and columnist, nationally recognized for his “Wry & Ginger” weekly humor column in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.
“This piece here is my favorite piece because it’s a very familiar scene to me. It’s taken from the road that I live on, and there’s often very beautiful cloud formations, especially in the fall. And I did this the week my father died…I just felt these heavy clouds and the title is ‘Smothering Clouds,’” she said.
The accompanying haiku reads: It seems like too much / Smothering clouds weighing down / But tomorrow hope
A standard piece takes Kent about two to four hours to complete, and six to eight for larger or more complex ones. She starts nearly all of her works on site, brings them to about 80 percent completion, then takes reference photos and adds finishing touches at home.
Kent explained how she appreciates the texture, layerability, and pigment of soft pastel.
“I love the fact that you can layer it and it’s very forgiving because of that,” she said. “You can go over it, you can brush it out, and to me it just feels really fresh. It feels fresh and it feels soft, and it’s also extremely luminous because it’s pure pigment in a stick with a little bit of binder to keep it stuck together. You can get a real sense of color.”
Though most of the collection is entirely pastel, some works are collage, incorporating elements like paper and lace to add unique texture.
Her haikus are written either before or after creating the paired painting, and they can be either descriptive or perspective, some giving advice or even warnings about climate change.
She began writing poems in 2020 after challenging herself and her college best friend to write a haiku a day for a year.
“Before that, I always felt like I was a good writer, but I had never really seriously pursued it like that…And now it’s like, if I haven’t done it in a few days, I feel like something’s wrong.”
Kent leads the Champlain Hub of the Vermont Pastel Society, where she hosts activities, plein air painting, and workshops for a small team of pastelists. She has exhibited at the Vermont Pastel Society, the Bryan Memorial Art Gallery, the Emile A. Gruppe Gallery, and local restaurants and coffee shops.
“She really has just been honing her craft, and she is such an inspired painter,” Ashline said. “I have many of her pieces hanging in my home and I look forward to many more.” The Dean Shirley A. Jefferson Gallery is located between the Chase Student Center and the Cornell Library on campus. It is free to the public and open every day 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.