A Magic
Touch
By Judith M. Wilson
S
ometimes, a piece of art
is more than meets the
eye. It requires the viewer
to perceive it from his or her
unique perspective for it to have
meaning, and for painter Irene
Belknap, that is the intent. “I like
to do open-ended things. People
have different responses. I want
it [a painting] to be open to their
interpretation,” she says.
Time
28
Marin Arts & Culture
Belknap, of Mill Valley, is a
figurative painter. Figures, which
might be human or animal, are
at the heart of her work, and
gesture is also important, but she
uses them as a starting point to
express other ideas and allows
her vision to develop as she
works. She finds that beginning
with a blank canvas without
knowing what direction it might
take is a magical process. “If you
can get yourself in the place of
letting go, that happens,” she
explains, adding that she turns
on music, usually classical when
she begins to paint, and “It’s sort
of a meditative space I try to
put myself into.” It’s a process
that requires a mind open to
ideas, and so what someone says
or a passage she reads might
become meaningful and make
its way onto a canvas to illustrate
a theme. Her series Dressed in
Words, for example, began when
she observed that people wrap
themselves in their own stories.
It contains 13 paintings, each
based on that core idea but with
its own distinct theme. Because
she doesn’t determine what she’s
going to paint ahead of time,
Belknap collects ideas while she
works. As a result, a painting