This old house
“Inward” (oil on linen), by Philip Frey, in his show “Rejoicing in Color,’’ at Edgewater Gallery at the Falls, Middlebury, Vt., through Sept. 5. He lives and works in Downeast Maine.
Preserving a luminous beauty
“Stillness” (oil on canvas), by Massachusetts artist Penny Billings, at Edgewater Gallery, Middlebury, Vt.
Copyright 2022 / Penny Billings Fine Art
She says:
“My work is influenced by the incredibly diverse landscape of the Northeast, with its changing seasons and the striking intersection of light and shadow at certain times of day. I strive to capture and preserve that same luminous beauty in my oil paintings.’’
'Sameness and difference'
”Reconfiguration #2’’ (acrylic on canvas), by Rupert, Vt.-based artist Jane Davies, at Edgewater Gallery, Middlebury, Vt.
She says on her Web site:
“No matter what format or style my work takes, the pivot point of my visual explorations is sameness and difference. I like assembling a collection of visual elements that are markedly different from each other, like putting together a dinner party of people that have wildly different backgrounds and interests, to see what happens. I want to be surprised by the conversations or juxtapositions of my visual cast of characters, and then see how I can relate them to one another formally.’’
Bucolic and unprofitable
”The Aqua Biscayne’’ (oil on canvas), by Hartland, Vt.-based William B. Hoyt, at Edgewater Gallery, Middlebury, Vt.
The wonderful (especially in name) Skunk Hollow Tavern, in Hartland, Vt. It was built around 1790.
— Photo by John Phelan
‘Patterns of occupation’
”Salt Marsh Skiff’’ (archival pigment print), by Shelburne, Vt.-based Jim Westphalen, in his show “Land & Tide: Scenes From New England,’’ at Edgewater Gallery, Middlebury, Vt., through Aug. 9.
His Web site says:
“Jim Westphalen has always had an affinity for the built landscape — those features and patterns reflecting human occupation within the natural surroundings. His current body of work, entitled “Vanish,’’ is an ongoing narrative that speaks to the decay of iconic structures across rural America. Inspired by such painters as Andrew Wyeth, Edward Hopper and A. Hale Johnson, Jim’s photographs open like windows to a world that is rapidly disappearing before our eyes. He captures his dynamic images using a vintage 4x5 view camera adapted for digital capture and then creates his large-scale archival prints using a variety of acid-free rag papers.
Largely self-taught, Westphalen has been a professional photographer for over 30 years. Born and raised on Long Island, in 1996 he moved to Vermont to be closer to the rural landscape that he loves.’’
At Shelburne Farms, a nonprofit education center for sustainability, a 1,400-acre working farm and National Historic Landmark on the shores of Lake Champlain in Shelburne. The property is nationally significant as a well-preserved example of a Gilded Age "ornamental farm", developed in the late 19th Century with architecture by Robert Henderson Robertson and landscaping by Frederick Law Olmsted.
At least in your memory
“About a White House” (oil on panel), by Tracy Everly, at Edgewater Gallery, Middlebury, Vt.
‘Construct an ending’
“An Interesting Light’’ (oil on canvas), by Julia Purinton, of Warren, Vt., (see below) at Edgewater Gallery, Middlebury Vt.
The gallery says:
Ms. Purinton “blends the distinguishable with the imagined, creating dreamlike landscapes in oil. The context of time and place for each work is gracefully ambiguous allowing the viewer to interpret the composition in a personal way.
“Setting a mood with her soft, subtle palette, Purinton begins a story and leaves the ending for us to construct.’’
At the Sugarbush ski area, in Warren, in February. The Warren area is a major recreational and second-home area, anchored by Sugarbush. It also has many artists.
— Photo by TaraMGordon -
In 1910, way before the ski boom.
Too wet to plant yet
“Spring Field’’ (acrylic on canvas), by Hannah Bureau, in her show “Open Air,’’ at Edgewater Gallery, Middlebury, Vt. through May 22. A native of Paris, she’s now based In Waltham, Mass.
Needs replenishment
“Sustenance’’ (oil on canvas), by Kay Flierl, at Edgewater Gallery, Middlebury, Vt.
Purple P.M.
“Violet Afternoon’’ (oil on canvas), by Susan Abbott, at Edgewater Gallery, Middlebury, Vt. She live in northern Vermont.
Tools of old-fashioned daily work
“Intimations” (oil on linen) by Middlebury, Vt.-based painter Kate Gridley, at Edgewater Gallery, in Middlebury. Her Web site says:
“Known for her insights into human character, the quality of light in her work, and her painting technique, Kate Gridley maintains a studio in Middlebury, Vermont, where she has lived and painted full time since 1991.’’
At Middlebury College, with the Green Mountains in the background
Kitchen art
“Home Brew” (oil on panel), by Rachel Wilcox, in the group show “Small Works, Big Impacts,’’ at Edgewater Gallery, Middlebury, Vt., starting Nov. 15.
The gallery says the five pieces she has delivered to the show “further explore her restaurant kitchen theme but also include vignettes from her own kitchen. Each painting gives the viewer an intimate, and compositionally intriguing snapshot of parts of working kitchens.’’
She lives and works in Amesbury, Mass., on the north side of the Merrimack River.
From The Boston Cooking School magazine of culinary science and domestic economics in 1896
The Whittier Memorial Bridge over the Merrimack River. The bridge, named for the once famous Massachusetts poet and abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892), who grew up on a farm in nearby Haverhill, connects Amesbury and Newburyport.
'Histories held captive'
“Intersection” (oil on canvas), by Jeff Bye, in his show “Shenandoah,’’ at Edgewater Gallery, Middlebury, Vt., through Oct. 31.
The gallery says:
“In Vermont we have landscape painters who seek to capture and honor the natural beauty of our state. Bye has a similar focus, but his landscapes are the interior landscapes of buildings that once were inhabited and were vital to the towns and communities in which they stood but now are vacant, their histories held captive behind locked doors and boarded windows.’’
‘Adding and subtracting layers’
“Railroad Ties” (oil and cold wax on panel), by Helen Shulman, at Edgewater Gallery, Middlebury, Vt.
The gallery says:
“Helen Shulman’s abstract, mixed-media paintings draw on her interest in the manipulation of surface texture, color, and mark making, and are compositions that may have their origins in the landscape or the figure but become about the process of adding and subtracting layers, creating texture, and interest that will draw the viewer in and through each piece.’’
And then go back to bed
“Rise’’ (oil on canvas), by Alexis Serio, at Edgewater Gallery at the Falls, Middlebury, Vt.
The gallery says:
“Serio creates ethereal, abstract landscapes. Through her color choices, and layering of tones and simplified shapes the artist’s compositions become vast and dreamlike. They glow with shifting light and a sense of place. Serio’s work strives to evoke remembrance of something familiar for the viewer. Billowing skies meet rolling planes of landscape in this beautiful new series.’’
Abstracted walk in the woods
“Lookout” (acrylic on canvas), by Liz Hoag at Edgewater Gallery, Middlebury, Vt.
The gallery says:
“Hoag [based in Westbrook, Maine} is inspired by her walks in the Maine woods and is known for her abstracted tree-filled landscapes that give the viewer a glimpse of the hidden vignettes that exist in the forest but are often overlooked. She begins her compositions with dark canvas and builds light tones on top of the dark creating the positive space in the composition. The result is a painting that conveys the beauty of light filtering through trees and the serenity one feels on a walk in the woods.’’
This sign and gazebo are across the street from the Westbrook Public Library. The mural was a project of Westbrook Arts & Culture, painted by aerosol artist Mike Rich and funded by the Warren Memorial Foundation and several Westbrook businesses. See the old mill building in the distance.
Westbrook is an old mill town and now mostly just seen as a suburb of Portland.
Bridge Street in Westbrook in 1912
Ebb and flow
“Each Piece is Different’’ (acrylic on canvas), by Charlie Bluett, at Edgewater Gallery, Middlebury, Vt.
Charlie Bluett’s studio is in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. He was born in England and educated at Eton College there, and has exhibited extensively in the United Kingdom and the United States.
The gallery says:
“Bluett is an abstract painter who is inspired by the ebb and flow of the natural processes of the earth. Using this as his reference, his interest is then in the process of building form, color, and surface texture into large scale compositions that are bold and dynamic, but also subtle in their shifting shapes and tones. His works contain elements that pay homage to the techniques of the old masters, blended with abstract expressionism and the colorfield painting of the contemporary names of our time.’’
Panoramic view of Willoughby Notch and Mount Pisgah, in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont.
— Photo by Patmac13
Sign up now for last weeks of winter light
“Song of Winter Pool’’ (oil on linen) by Rory Jackson in his Edgewater Gallery show “Blanket of Stillness: Winter in the Mad River Gallery’’ at the Pitcher Inn, Warren, Vt., through March 22. Edgewater (based in Middlebury, Vt.) says Mr. Jackson “captures the unique beauty of the low winter light on the open fields, slopes, forests and mountains of (Vermont’s) Mad River Valley.’’
Lincoln Peak, West View (oil on linen)
In 1910
'Fragmented realism'
Collage made entirely of paper cut from recycled magazines, by Betsy Silverman, in her show “Cut It Out,’’ at Edgewater Gallery at Middlebury Falls, Middlebury, Vt. The Boston-based artist calls her work “fragmented realism,’’ depicting classic New England scenes in a new way.
See:
http://www.betsysilverman.com/
and:
https://edgewatergallery.co/
At least at first
“Discreet” ( acrylic and mixed media on canvas), by Ellen Rolli, at Edgewater Gallery, Boston