Donna Phipps Stout

Found an artist whose still life paintings I really like: Donna Phipps Stout who is represented by the Jerald Melberg Gallery in Charlotte, NC.
I'm not trying to pit one painting style against another, I do think that Stout's arrangements of flowers and objects demonstrate a much broader and freer approach to drawing and form than does Dana Levin's. Saying that, I'll be the first to champion the beauty of Levin's painting. But Stout bites off more to chew than does Levin (or classical realists generally). She throws herself headlong into a confusion of light and dark, texture and color, and finds a wonderful unity within it. And she portrays the objects with a philosophic sense of beauty, stillness and time.
There's a larger vision available to the artist who is not locked into a formula for seeing and knowing a thing.
That said (I'm feeling guilty here) if Ms. Levin is wearing a straight-jacket, let's give her credit for its being a very beautiful one.
[Pictured above Spring Mementos, 60 x 48, 1997]