RUTLAND: Annual Juried Artist Exhibit at Chaffee Downtown

This Annual Exhibit features forty-two of Chaffee's Juried Artists.  Visitors will see watercolors, oils, pottery, sculptures of diverse mediums, mixed media and fiber art.

Alice Sciore * Ann McFarren * Betty Atwood * Carrie Pill * Christine Holzschuh * Christine Townsend   David Kutchukian * Denise Letendre Bach * Don Haynes * Eloise Biel * Graham Mears * Ian Crietz * Jon Levine * Joshua Rome * Karen Seward * Kate More * Katherine Langlands * Kathryn Wiegers * Kleng T Walker * Krista Cheney * Liliana Paradiso * Linda Durkee * Lowell Snowden Klock * Lynn D. Pratt * Mareva Millarc * Mary Alcantara * Mary Crowley * Mary Fran Lloyd * Melissa Kristiansen * Morgan Haynes * Nancy Neyerlin Pisano * Ori Goldberg * Paul Calter * Paulette Martell * Peter Huntoon * Rae Newell * Robert Gold * Robert Hooker * Rosalind Daniels * Steve Halford * Sue Carey * Susan Bayard Whiting *

Exhibit: March 7 to April 25, 2014

The exhibit will be open to the public Tuesday through Friday, Noon to 6pm, and Saturday 10am to 5pm, at Chaffee Downtown, 75 Merchants Row from March 7th to April 25th, 2014. 

Friday, March 14, 2014, 5 - 7 pm 

- watercolor demonstration by Peter Huntoon - refreshments and cheese.

BRATTLEBORO: BMAC Blooms with New Exhibits Opening March 15

Opening: Saturday, March 15, 2014
Brattleboro Museum and Art Center

Robert Kushner, “Indian Summer – Homage to Bonnard” (2000), oil, acrylic, and mixed media on canvas, 6 x 18 feet

New England may be experiencing an old-fashioned, snow-filled winter, but spring is about to burst into bloom at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) on Saturday, March 15, when “Flora: A Celebration of Flowers in Contemporary Art” fills four of the museum’s six galleries with vibrant work by 13 artists. Opening alongside “Flora” are “Out of the Shadows: Paintings by Jim Giddings” and “Water Studies, Brattleboro,” a site-specific installation by Jennifer Stock. All three new exhibits open to BMAC members at 11 a.m. and to the general public at 2 p.m.

“Given the incredible beauty and variety of flowers, it is not surprising to find representations of them by artists working in virtually every medium,” said BMAC Chief Curator Mara Williams. “The artists chosen for this exhibit draw freely from established artistic conventions. They find inspiration in flowers themselves and in a host of generative sources, creating work that is deeply connected to aesthetic tradition yet uniquely fresh.”

“Water Studies, Brattleboro,” an audio-visual installation by Jennifer Stock

Those artists include Robert Kushner, whose 18-foot-wide painting, “Indian Summer – Homage to Bonnard,” anchors the north wall of the museum’s Wolf Kahn & Emily Mason Gallery, and Bobbi Angell, whose exquisite botanical illustrations share space in the Ticket Gallery with living orchids on loan from Brattleboro florist Windham Flowers. Janet Fish’s dazzling painted bouquets are complemented by Nan Montgomery’s minimalist renderings of lilies. Anne Morgan Spalter’s kaleidoscopic videos, displayed on large screens and on small, gem-like objects, create flower-like images from diverse source footage. Marta Bernbaum’s glass flowers and Floyd Elzinga’s steel leaves and pine cones add dimension to a visually rich, strikingly colorful exhibit.

Opening alongside “Flora” is “Out of the Shadows: Paintings by Jim Giddings.” From 1982 through 2013, Giddings worked as BMAC’s building manager and art handler, transporting, hanging, and focusing lights on the work of other artists, while continuing to maintain his own painting studio and exhibition schedule. “Out of the Shadows” reveals some of the transformations Giddings’s painting underwent during that time. “For me, painting is a path to discovery,” says Giddings. “When I begin a painting, I have no idea what will develop. My ideas change throughout the process; the process changes my ideas.”

Jim Giddings, “Disappearing Rocks” (1992), oil paintstick on paper, 23 x 34 inches

Rounding out the new exhibits is “Water Studies, Brattleboro,” a site-specific audio-visual installation by New York City–based artist Jennifer Stock. The work offers an abstracted portrait of Brattleboro through images of the Connecticut River and its tributary the Whetstone Brook. Flowing together just north of the museum, their combined topography and energy define the town. Stock made photographs, often of reflections in the waterways, and ambient field recordings at sites near the museum, which she assembled, together with synthesized music, to project an immersive composition that seeks to convey a unique sense of place.

“Flora” will remain on view through June 22, while “Out of the Shadows” and “Water Studies, Brattleboro” will close May 4. In connection with these new exhibits, BMAC will present a number of related events, including artist talks by Bobbi Angell, Tom Fels, Jim Giddings, and Anne Morgan Spalter; a guided wildflower walk at Bonnyvale Environmental Education Center; a tour of the famed North Hill Garden in Readsboro, Vermont; an orchid care workshop; a lecture on the status of Vermont’s bumblebees; and much more. For information on these and other events planned for the coming months, visit www.brattleboromuseum.org/calendar.

The museum’s exhibits and gift shop are open Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday 11–5; Friday 11–7; and Saturday 10–5. Regular admission is $8 for adults, $6 for seniors, and $4 for students. Members and children under 6 are admitted free of charge. Located in historic Union Station in downtown Brattleboro, at the intersection of Main Street and Routes 119 and 142, the museum is wheelchair accessible. 

For more information call 802-257-0124 or visit www.brattleboromuseum.org.

MONTPELIER: Diane Donovan "In and Out the Kingdom"

Vermont Arts Council Spotlight Gallery presents In and Out the Kingdom, a collection of works by Diane Donovan (St. Johnsbury) in the Vermont vernacular that juxtaposes familiar scenes with stark realities.

Opening reception: April 4, 2014,  4 to 7:00 p.m. 
On exhibit through April 30, 2014.

Diane Donovan - Artist Statement

Infrared

The Kingdom. An earthy place of stark realities. In summer an overwhelming riot of green, in winter a bleak hibernal outpost. As a transplant from the Boston area many years ago, where I rode  the trolleys to high school, was nurtured by museums, galleries, the state university, and the artistic ambience of a city, I found that here in the Kingdom, by losing that identity, I also lost the filter of emotional history of my roots as a daughter of immigrants and shop owners. And so the Kingdom, more than anything else, was a portal to discovery for me as a painter. I discovered that, in this wild place that often misses the mark, where upward mobility isn't always the prize, I understood the place: it is a celebration of "just enough."

Art connects us with the world beyond the senses, and it is with an encounter with nature that artistic expression often finds its greatest resonanace. To me the landscape is not just the natural world but human activity that changes and puts its stamp on it. We are the landscape as well.

I was influenced by American Impressionism that flowered on Cape Cod where I made portraits in the summer in the 70's. Beyond painting the light, I see a composition like a puzzle, weaving the main idea into elements that fit into one another and whose pieces eventually fall in place. Color and glazes are ways to adjust the pieces to fit right.

Spotlight Gallery
Vermont Arts Council
136 State Street
Montpelier, VT

The Spotlight Gallery is open to the public and located in the corridor and conference room of our offices at 136 State Street in Montpelier. There are times when the conference room is not available, but the corridor exhibit is always open during regular business hours.
Gallery Hours: Monday - Friday, 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.