August 29 through October 21, 2012
Winooski Welcome Center Gallery
Robert Waldo Brunelle, Jr. paints Vermont the way David Hockney painted California or Peter Hurd painted New Mexico: a blend of place and style. Brunelle, who is also a cartoonist, brings a comic-inspired illustrative quality into his painting. What I Have Painted So Far: 30 years of paintings by Robert Waldo Brunelle, Jr. is on exhibit at Winooski Welcome Center from August 29th through October 21st, 2012. The exhibition features over 150 paintings and is the single largest showing of the artist’s work ever.
Brunelle is a seventh-generation Vermonter, with roots dating back to the 1750s. Brunelle was born in Rutland in 1958, and, as he puts it, “learned to draw before I learned to write!” He received no formal art
training until attending St. Michael’s College in 1976. There he fell under the influence of renowned art professor, Roy Kennedy, well-known painter Lance Richbourg, and the namesake of the Sloane Art Center, Sy Sloane. Brunelle graduated in 1980 with a double degree in History and Fine Arts, and went on to earn a Master’s in Art Education at Castleton State College. Brunelle has been exhibiting his paintings in Vermont since 1975, and has served as the president of the Northern Vermont Artist Association since 1995. He is also a political cartoonist, whose strip “Mr. Brunelle Explains It All” may be seen in the humor magazine Funny Times.Brunelle’s scenes have a before and after, even if those are not in the paintings themselves. The moments in the paintings are not necessarily the pinnacle moments. Old houses are worn down. They are matter of fact. If there is a love affair in these paintings, it is between the artist and the light. Brunelle says, “Underneath the skeleton of our modern Vermont towns and cities, there’s the Victorian world and little bits and pieces of it are still sticking out. If you know where to look, where to dig, so to speak….I’m interested in time and the effect that time has on people and how things are always receding into the past."
The Winooski Welcome Center is a collaboration between Jodi Harrington and Kasini House.
Gallery Hours:
Wednesday through Saturday, 11 am to 8 pm
Sundays, 10 am to 3 pm.
(802) 399-2670
info@
The Winooski Welcome Center is located on the top right side of the circle in Downtown Winooski at 41 Main Street (US 2/US7). The Winooski Welcome Center Gallery brings art to Downtown Winooski in a highly visible space on the top of the circle. Exhibitions feature Vermont artists as well as curated exhibitions. The Winooski Welcome Center Gallery was part of the highly successful 2011 and 2012 Winooski Pop-Up Gallery Districts.
Click here for parking info and more details about the Winooski Welcome Center.
