Elm Grove
by Michele Malinchak
In Aristotle’s words, “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” Trisha Vergis achieves this goal by getting close to her subjects, revealing something deeper in them. And while divine inspiration plays a role, it’s everyday life that stirs her imagination.
“I feel my job as an artist is to bring joy,” she said.
Born and raised in Bucks County, she has a personal connection to the area and her paintings include local landscapes, seasonal produce and flowers, architecture and still life subjects. It’s her ability to see the sublime in the mundane that lets us see common objects like fishing lures, billiards or even a jar of honey in a new light.
Trisha began her career as a woodcarver which has influenced her painting style. Rhonda Garland, owner of the Silverman Gallery who represents Trisha’s work, described her brush strokes: “They are sculptural because she was a woodcarver. You can actually follow the contour of what she’s painting.”
Painting in the realist style, Trisha includes elements of Fauvism with its use of bold colors and vigorous brush strokes. Her oil paintings are done alla prima, a direct painting approach meaning ‘at first attempt’ in which paint is applied wet on wet without letting earlier layers dry. “I work fast and furious,” she said.
When asked how long it takes her to complete a painting, she answered, “A lifetime. It’s all the years of practice and experience that matter.” She compares her approach to a pro ball player who might play only one game a week but practices every day for months.
Because she likes to experiment and reach out of her comfort zone, “Only one out of four paintings ever turns out,” she said.
Since her current studio space is small, she tends to paint plein air from the back of her Subaru Outback. “I’ve got a strategy for every season, know the temperatures and the right time of day to paint,” she said. Winter is her favorite season by far. “Summer is too green. In winter you get magical blues, pinks and yellows, plus the quietness.”
If the subject is too far away, such as across a river, she uses a monocular to see it better. Most of her work is completed on site with less than one percent finished at home. “There’s least-to-little-to-none in the way of fixing,” she said.
She also paints at night and her dramatic nocturne works of the New Hope train station or Prallsville Mill in Stockton, NJ were done near streetlamps, though she confessed, “It’s like painting by braille.”
Trisha achieves color harmony by painting with a limited palette consisting of only six colors: three primary (red, blue, yellow) and three earth colors, plus white. She has an acute eye for color and mixes all of her secondary colors. She’s learned from studying the color theories of German artist Josef Albers and she continues to do color exercises.
She’ll often spend days planning her compositions and never refers to photos. Once, she said, “I cut up a watermelon the wrong way and had to start over again.” She prefers melons with seeds which are hard to come by these days but was able to connect with a farmer who grows them. In her painting entitled, ‘Johnny’s Watermelon,’ she uses trompe-l’oeil or ‘trick of the eye’ to create the optical illusion of three dimensions. The slice of melon in the foreground appears as if it’s jumping right off the canvas at us.
She always tones her canvas and uses a painting medium consisting of one-third each stand oil, linseed oil and turpentine. Often, she’ll let part of the underlying canvas show through, known as non finito or unfinished. She pointed to an area of background color peeking through the snow in her landscape, ‘Elm Grove Winter.’
Trisha works hard at her art, drawing each morning and reading old art books by the masters. Auguste Rodin is one of her favorite artists, though she appreciates a variety of styles including the contemporary work of Mark Rothko. Even more than his sculptures, though, Trisha is fond of Rodin’s drawings.
In some of her work, such as ‘Late July Sunflowers,’ she has followed Rodin’s advice— to have something in the painting look right at the viewer. While most of the sunflower heads have dark brown centers, one is conspicuously blue green that looks just like an eye staring back.
Trisha grew up in Langhorne, PA and later Wycombe where her family had an old farmhouse on 15 acres. She remembers climbing onto the deep windowsills with her siblings and looking outside. The image was etched so clearly in her mind that she painted it from memory in “Felix in the Farmhouse Window,” this time with a black cat on the sill.
The autonomous skills kick in when she’s painting certain subjects like old wooden chairs or cats. “It’s memory work,” she said. “When you’ve painted as many of them as I have, it’s not that hard.”
Born in 1962, Trisha was one of six children and remembers painting and carving wood from an early age. Her father was Chief of Staff at St. Mary Medical Center in Langhorne, and her mother was a chemist. “My father drew and painted in oils and took local art lessons,” she said. Because both of her parents grew up poor, they wanted their children to pursue conventional careers and were dead set against art as a means of earning a living.
Trisha took art lessons in the summer, but her coursework at Council Rock North High School in Newtown was straight academic. She graduated in 1980 and later earned a degree in economics from Ursinus College in 1984. Against her parents’ advice, “As soon as I got out, I knew I wanted to be an artist,” she said. Even before she graduated college, she apprenticed with woodcarver Michael P. McNulty and met several artists through him.
She honed her skills and opened Chisel and Quill in Frenchtown, NJ, where she carved architectural ornaments and created gold leaf signs. She also learned how to carve chainsaw sculptures and entered competitions, recalling how hard the vibrations were on her body.
Her goal was to become an oil painter and during this time she studied fine art in local studios and colleges including Bucks County and Raritan Community Colleges, Moore College of Art, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art and Philadelphia College of Art.
Finally, in 2000 she packed it in and sold all her woodcarving equipment. “My arm got too beat up,” she said.
Focusing on the fine arts, she opened Love of Art studio in Lambertville, NJ followed by the Trisha Vergis Gallery, where she taught art four days a week to 30 students. For a period of three years, she also shared studio space with Lambertville based painter Robert Beck.
Her paintings have won Best of Show and First Place awards at Tinicum Arts Festival as well as Best in Show at the Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie in 2017. Her work has also been included in Phillips Mill exhibitions and one of her iris paintings was featured at the 2021 Bucks County Designer House.
She’s had solo shows at the Silverman Gallery in Holicong and at Gratz Gallery and Conservation Studio in Doylestown where she occasionally works as a conservator restoring paintings.
During the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, she started making greeting cards from her paintings which are currently available at the Silverman Gallery.
Trisha resides in Hunterdon County, NJ and divides her time between there and Bucks County. Always excited about what to paint next, she’s a storehouse of nervous energy which she tones down by taking tap dance lessons and playing the drums. “I’m a noisy person,” she said, but she gets serious and quiet when she paints.
Not one to sit around waiting for the creative urge to strike, she’ll find whatever is on hand to paint, even if it’s just a pair of old salt and pepper shakers. “You can’t wait for inspiration,” she said. You have to get out there and paint every day.”
You can view her work at the Silverman Gallery located at 4920 York Road, Route 202, Holicong, PA. For more information, call 215-794-4300 or visit www.silvermangallerybuckscountypa.com.
Michele Malinchak is a freelance writer who has a degree in art and enjoys oil painting.