Elizabeth Schwartz: Seasons

Elizabeth Schwartz' exhibit Seasons opened at the gallery last Friday with a large reception and great weather downtown!

Sometimes, opening receptions are a challenging place to really "see" and experience an artist's work. Certainly, they're meant as a celebration of the culmination of the grand effort to produce a body of work, and Elizabeth was definitely celebrated!

Now's the time to come in and really experience her paintings! The piece to the left, Edge of Spring, is a good place to start looking at her work. As she says in her artist's statement, "The theme for this series was stimulated by my ongoing reflections on the meaning and passing of life's 'seasons', for which these paintings serve as a metaphor." Keeping this in mind, look at the painting and consider the artist's words, "Spring is the season of energy, anticipation and excitement. Possibilities seem endless." Think of how green that first grass and winter wheat looks. Is it because it's really greener? Or because it's been so long since our eyes last saw that color?

Schwartz' work focuses on evoking nature, rather than depicting nature. Her concern is similar to the Impressionists' interest in capturing the feeling of being in nature, the light, the color, rather than trying to replicate a specific scene. However, Schwartz is more interested in painting in bold color, rather than muted tones.

In her technical approach, she applies many layers of paint, sometimes bold, sweeping strokes over thin washes, sometimes delicate marks and layers made with a palette knife. Texture is important in Schwartz' work, giving the feeling of looking through trees, leaves and branches, on to that deeper level of the landscape.

Schwartz is fascinated with the contradictory forces of nature - "its unpredictable, humbling power, juxtaposed with its soothing seasonal rhythms". She says, "Many of these works are painted on a large scale in order to convey nature's grandeur and power, turbulence and beauty."

Stop on in to the gallery and see the grandeur and beauty for yourself!

WSG hosts Community High art students

Community Highschool student Grace Fisher created this mixed-media piece.

WSG hosts Steve Coron's advanced students for "Youth Art Month" downtown Ann Arbor. Student work from all over Washtenaw County is displayed in business windows downtown for the month of February.
Community High students have had to mat and frame their pieces so they can be professionally displayed at WSG. We celebrate their work, as well as our "Faces" show with a reception Friday, March 4, 6-9pm.

"Faces" goes up at WSG

Look in the windows at WSG the next couple of days, and you might see gallery members Norma Penchansky-Glasser and Nora Venturelli carefully arranging and hanging the new show "Faces". This show features self-portraits by gallery owners/artists in all the different ways they've interpreted self. (Also, Steve Coron's Community High School art students will have work featured in the current show.)

Above is Valerie Mann's self-portrait "Self-Portrait, 43" in one stage of its development. The piece is on re-purposed maple plywood, drawn and routed out with a Dremel tool at the stage above. The finished piece has had an encaustic treatment painted onto it and it's been scraped down so that the black encaustic is almost solely in the carved-out lines.

Stop by the gallery when the show opens Tuesday at noon to see all the pieces! The reception for this show is Friday, March 4, 6-9pm. Join us!

Be The Tree at WSG through next Sunday

Only 1 more week to see Martha Keller's spectacular trees! I'm not kidding, these paintings stop you in your tracks when you enter the gallery. This piece, Evergreen Overlooking Lake Michigan, is massive! Its size allows you to enter the scene on an emotional level that becomes almost physical. Martha's paintings are pieces you can have a real relationship with.

Come on in this next week and catch this gorgeous show!