Terry Rowlett populates paintings with characters from contemporary life – a biker and his woman astride their Harley, cheerleaders, a homeless man, and the denizens of coffee shops and clubs. With obvious technical skill and effortless art historical reference he places these figures in settings and poses suited for classical portraits of saints, heroes, and poets. A scarlet-clad figure stands in the woods with one hand tucked in his shirt like Napoleon, leaning on an axe as if it were a saint’s attribute. The forest setting contains zoological and botanical detail that recalls the way Renaissance painters introduced bits of scientific observation into historical or religious paintings. The subject of “A Man” is identified as a modern figure by his clothes, but he holds a walking stick and pauses on a mountain path that could be the stage for a Romantic Era scene of the Poet experiencing Nature. The biker couple lounge in front of a luminous vista worthy of the Hudson River School.
To some extent, the paintings are humorous when they give present-day people the full Old Masters treatment. All the visual facility might be seen as serving the one-line joke of an anachronistic combination of subject matter and style, but this artist pursues more complex observations and shows more far-reaching interest in his sources and subjects.
Rowlett grew up in a very religious household and held conservative Christian beliefs through graduate school. Soon after, he had a kind of reverse conversion experience and left Fundamentalism behind. However, his years of belief and study predictably left a mark, and an instinct for religious iconography is evident. Some paintings refer to Bible scenes or the lives of the saints, and even when motorcycles show up in his work he plays with their status as objects of veneration. More importantly, the characters in all of his paintings are singular, intense personalities. In life, saints would be people who have a powerful effect on those they encounter. Rowlett treats his subjects as religious characters in this way, recognizing how their distinctness gives them an everyday spiritual power. He paints the people who seem a little bit more alive than everyone around them. Secular saints whom one can experience as bearers of spiritual power if you know how to look. Remarkable characters who merit treatment by an artist with command of the full range of Western painting’s expressive power.