Southside Gallery showcases Chatham Meade Kemp’s abstract landscapes

The Daily Mississippian Paintings from “Saturation” by Chatham Meade Kemp. (Photo courtesy: Southside Gallery)
This month, the walls of Southside Gallery are invigorated with vibrantly colored abstract landscape paintings.  
“Saturation,” by artist Chatham Meade Kemp, an assistant professor at William Carey University, is on exhibit until April 1. The artist reception will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. Saturday, March 18, at Southside.
Kemp’s artwork is inspired by her life in Hattiesburg, where she was born and raised. The pieces in the collection range from large oil on canvas to small oil pastel on paper. 
“Saturation,” an 18-piece collection all created within the past year, embodies Kemp’s ability to evaluate contrasting concepts. She pairs turbulence with stillness, mixes contemporary and traditional and combines rich colors with organic lines.
The title “Saturation” stems from Kemp’s passion for duality, not only in content but also method.
“I felt like saturation can refer to water when it rains, and there’s so much water that the ground is saturated,” Kemp said. “Also, in art terms, saturation means brightness, and a lot of the paintings have intensity of color.”
Kemp thinks her tendency to use strong colors and movement in her art is representative of her energetic personality.
The specific sensations the colors in her paintings evoke are also a contrast. Some pieces contain a lot of yellow, which Kemp said she considers hot and tropical. Others focus more on blue, which provides a quieter, soothing relief to the yellow.
Kemp painted the gray and blue paintings last summer amid tragedy.
“I had a friend who had chemo and also had another friend whose brother died,” Kemp said. “It was like a week without color, and I think that was, in part, response to calming down all the colors but also the sadness of being concerned about these friends.”
Paintings from “Saturation” by Chatham Meade Kemp. ( ...


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