Sunday, February 19, 2012

PRESS RELEASE: Victoria Blewer and Saba Field at Gander Gallery in Manchester Center

Gander Gallery is pleased to announce a two-person exhibition featuring Victoria Blewer and Saba Field on view from March 3, 2012, through March 23, 2012. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, March 3, 2012. Refreshments will be served from 5 PM - 7 PM. All are welcome.

Sabra Field, arguably Vermont's most famous artist, is one of America's most accomplished printmakers. Her landscapes quietly symbolize the harmony that exists between humanity and nature. Over the years, Sabra has refined her skills of observation and cultivated an astonishing ability to recall images, which she calls "collective shared images," of our beautiful Green Mountain state. In recent years, Sabra has been producing giclee prints that are created digitally from her original woodblock images. She has been awarded Middlebury College's Alumni Achievement Award and an Honorary Doctorate. Sabra has also been named an extraordinary Vermonter, received the Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts and the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum Award for the Arts. Middlebury College, Sabra's alma mater, has a collection of every piece that she has ever printed.

Victoria Blewer left the chaos and the clutter of New York City in 1986 to devote herself full-time to fine art photography in the quiet hills of Vermont. Each of her prints is photographed with black-and-white film, many with infrared black-and-white film, printed on a porous paper, and then toned for color and longevity. Next, she hand-colors the photograph with oil paints. Light layers of paint are applied gently to the photograph until the color application is smooth and even. This is a time-honored technique that photographers have used for over a century. Before the invention of color film, it was the only method of obtaining color photographs. The result is an image that is dream-like, elegiac, and (sometimes) surreal. Each photograph is an original print, colored individually by hand. Her work has been featured in full-length photo essays in the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, Vermont Life, and Vermont Magazine. Her photographs have appeared in numerous newspapers, magazines and books and have been displayed in private homes and offices across New York and New England. Her work may be seen at galleries around Vermont. Victoria was born in New York City and is a graduate of Smith College in Northampton, MA. She refined her art with classes at the New School in New York City, the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, NY, and the University of Vermont. She lives in Lincoln, Vermont, with her husband and daughter.

Images: Snow Light by Sabra Field and Barn up Close, Victoria Blewer