Great escape

Watercolorist Iris Lanyon colors it beautiful

by Leon Nigrosh

ESCAPE TO PUERTO RICO: WATERCOLORS BY IRIS LANYON. At the George C. Gordon Library, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, through October 4.

The first thing you notice when you visit Puerto Rico is that the natural light is very different. The angle of the sunlight causes everything to seem much brighter, and the clear, crisp air makes ordinary colors appear to vibrate. Iris Lanyon has dramatically captured this visual effect in more than 30 watercolors currently on display at WPI's Gordon Library gallery.

Lanyon, a native of Puerto Rico and now a Holden resident, had never painted before taking a class at the Worcester Art Museum with well-known area artist Susan Swinand. Prior to that, she was busy teaching the social sciences, raising children, and, in her spare time, sewing. Although Lanyon's painted subject matter is wide-ranging, this exhibit contains only images of the island made during the past 10 years. Her first watercolor, Tropical Serenity -- Playa Santa, while tentative in approach, shows little of the hesitancy usually found in novice watercolor works. A clutch of small fishing boats rests peacefully in a calm bay while lacy clouds float overhead. She is at ease with the wet-on-wet technique, and her sense of scale and proportion has combined to produce a pleasant, naturalistic scene.

Lanyon's ability to insinuate her personality into her paintings has grown from early work as evidenced by two recent versions of Beach Shanties -- La Parguera. Everything is now rendered in high key color. The phalanx of technicolor shacks dominates the composition, and the water has become an agitated linear mix of many hues. It is obvious that this work is driven by her sense of color, augmented by her years of working with fabrics and patterns. (In fact, she still sews and is currently making costumes for the Children's Room at the Higgins Armory Museum.)

Color also takes center stage in Catch of the Day 2. This riot of curlicues in hot red and electric orange slowly organizes itself to become a close-up look at nearly two dozen Red Snappers dangling from the hands of a lucky San Juan fisherman. The color in Twilight at La Fortaleza is just as magnetic but serves to create a totally opposite feeling. Here, the red-violet of the night sky provides a serene backdrop as it surrounds the gleaming white facade of the governor's mansion while a catamaran glides effortlessly into the moonlit bay.

Lanyon often uses photographs as references for her luscious beachscapes and views of bustling marketplaces or coffee plantations. But when she delves into the world of Vejigantes, she lets her imagination run wild. These larger-than-life characters populate festivals and street fairs throughout the island. Originally thought of as representing the devil in the never-ending struggle between good and evil, these creatures are named for the vejigas, the balloon-like, waterfilled animal bladders they wield to torment passersby.

Her largest watercolor, Vejigantes, Ponce Carnival, is also one of her most animated. The central figure wears a giant multi-hued papier-mâché mask festooned with 11 horns (far more than the real masks). Dressed in a voluminous red and yellow cape and accompanied by three other gaily-costumed grotesques, the head man whirls about in the midst of a colorful storm of confetti and streamers.

Carnival in Loiza Aldea is also all tilt-a-whirl with four monstrous Vejigantes dancing, drumming, and flailing about in joyful abandon. But in this instance, the figures are wearing masks made from coconut husks decorated with sticks instead of papier-mâché. The inhabitants of Loiza are predominantly of African descent, rather than South American, and the carved shells are more in keeping with their heritage of woodcarving. Even though the colors of the outlandish costumes are already striking and flamboyant, Lanyon makes them even more so by bordering the work with a double matte of red and white surrounded by a red lacquer frame.

Continuing to employ her wide spectrum of active color, Lanyon has also produced several smaller images of masqueraders dancing solo, along with a series of lavishly tinted flower portraits, which complete the festive air generated throughout the entire exhibition.

The gallery is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., Saturday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Sunday from noon to 11 p.m. Call 831-5410.