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By Diana Biro
Rappahannock News Writer
At the Middle Street Gallery in Washington, Steven Kenny’s exhibition of ten oil paintings on canvas and panels has a character with 4vhich we hate become familiar, owing to the subjects of his work, women arrayed and situated with specimens from nature, and scenes of “birds and bugs”, for instance, all meticulously portrayed in marvelous renaissance colors and detail.
A dictionary definition of surreal:, “Having the intense, irrational reality off a dream.” Surrealistic: "The; practice of producing fantastic or?, incongruous imagery or effects in art, by means of unnatural juxtapositions and combinations.” These definitions describe Mr. Kenny’s work to a T.
“The Yolk” figures a woman sitting at a table with an egg broken into one hand with the “white” leaking through her fingers onto a small plate. One needs to note especially ' the business of this leaking substance.
The painting takes off from Dutch interiors: The woman has braided her blond hair and arranged it in coils on top of her head. A pendant pearl earring hangs from her right ear. She is accompanied by a spectacular, alert, old fashioned, blue and red rooster and two just-hatched biddies.
: The pyramidal composition of thie f image gives it a monumental aspect that sets off the exquisite details of “ the woman’s costume, made of nesting material and scattered feathers.
“Mademoiselle Chanterelle" < depicts a young woman clothed in ftxngi of various sorts, moss, and a stone with growing lichen. Her large J hat might be a Portobello mushroom, s topped by a red and white Fly Agaric and an orange Fragrant Chanterelle.
The frill around her neck is a Polypore T\irkey-tail. The skill with which Kenny has put together several varieties of mushrooms might deceive the casual observer into thinking this is a person in conven-' tional dress. The effect is elegant.
"The Grotto” portrays a woman" adjacent to a marvelously blue,'* translucent body of water that recalls the Blue Grotto of the Island of Capri. She holds a fragile looking seaweed fan and has Asteriid Sea;
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