painting by Betsy Taylor on view
at The Mill Art Center & Gallery
Honeoye Falls, NY on view to December 1, 2012
The fall season I had experienced on the way over to the gallery was quickly followed by sunny summer weather indoors at the exhibition: "Painting Tuscany". Maybe it sounds like a scenario from a movie, but a quintet of ladies go to Italy, painting en plein air and come away refreshed and full of treasures - both memories and paintings made on the spot. Accompanying this show of mostly portable size paintings is an enjoyable slide show of the rustic villas and countryside that is so eye catching. We live a vicarious thrill in the Italian hills famous for their wines, for the gorgeous light, and the romance of it all. Rebecca DeMarco, Denise Heischman, Jane O'Donnell, Sara O'Donnell, and Betsy Taylor remind us of how seductive painting the landscape in Northern Italy can be.
Over to the Axom Gallery on another night for an artist talk by Susan Ferrari-Rowley. Susan carried on an animated discussion about her minimalist constructions and answered audience questions. She made mention of the visceral nature of her creative act of sculpture and her practice of incorporating light and shadow as part of her concept - in evidence whether you visit the gallery during daylight or evening hours.
speaks at Axom Gallery
her show continues to November 17, 2012
First Fridays gets underway this November with hordes of people strolling through artist's studios and galleries creating a social buzz that certainly beats Facebook! Go and see for yourself.... everywhere I looked there was something of interest from the Pop-up books presented by Bill Finewood at the JGK Gallery at 10 Vick Park A - to the color abstractions of William ( Bill ) Sellers now on view at the Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester.
Among the open studios at the Anderson Arts Building, I found Kathy Clem in her new multimedia space - showing her latest images developed on her iPad - these were colorful puffy kitty-cats that somehow morph into owls and fly away into a land of digital fireworks. In the same building, The Shoe Factory Art Co-op has "Tone It Down A Notch" a show of minimal art for a modest budget.
My favorite things on this gallery ramble were photographs by Nathan Lyons on view at the Spectrum Gallery at Lumierre, and the photos by Patti Ambrogi and Owen Butler at Gallery r. Walk over to 100 College Avenue and the doors open to a world of wonderful photos - a cross section of Nathan Lyons and his life's work behind the camera. I was intrigued by the dialog of photos presented in pairs which maintain an elegant poetry of visual acuity.
courtesy of Spectrum Gallery at Lumierre
I was pleased to see R.I.T. president Bill Destler and his wife at the opening of the show at Gallery r. Well attended gallery shows develop a buzz, and then become the thing that you must see. Hopefully all this social whirl has an economic benefit to the city, to the galleries, and to the artists who participate.
The retrospective exhibition of photos by Patty Ambrogi at Gallery r have a spectacular particularity. I immediately want to go there - to the places she finds through her lens. The goblins from the deserts of Utah, to a block of stone that resembles an ocean liner - these photos are a document of color and substance, a love letter to geology and geography. Owen Butler's black and white photography is a tribute to a man who always seems to have a camera at hand - ready for that decisive moment ( to borrow a phrase from Henri Cartier-Bresson). The eloquence of a glimpse into the life of a lady selling dresses on a hot day reveals a deep seated humanity that is not unlike reading the pages in a great novel....bravo!
