NOW SHOWING

Juror: Soon Y Warren

Exhibition Dates: November 9th – December 13th, 2024

Delighted to be exhibiting ‘The Windy Island’ as part of The Blue Mountain Gallery’s marvelous Traveling Show, ‘Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water’, at

The Marblehead Arts Association
8 Hooper Street, Marblehead, MA 01945
(781) 631-2608

August 10th through September 21st
Opening Reception: August : Saturday, August 10th

Juror: Linnea Toney Leeming

Exhibition Dates: February 17th – March 22^nd, 2024

I’m delighted to have my painting ‘Caged Bird, Early Spring’ (w.c./paper,22×30”) accepted into the Rhode Island Watercolor Society’s 2022 National Show, (juror: Irena Roman),
exhibit dates: June 4th – July 16th, opening reception, Saturday, June 11th, at 1 pm

So very pleased to have three of my paintings in The Blue Mountain Gallery’s Invitational show: ‘Once in a Blue Moon’ along with a truly wonderful group of artists. 

The exhibit runs from August 1-19 with an artist’s reception on August 3rd 5-8

Below:  “Behold the Moon,” oil on panel, 12 x 9″, 2022.
Also included in the exhibit will be: “Peonies at Dusk,” oil/panel 9 x 12″ & 
“Entrance to the Greenhouse,” oil/canvas 12 x 9″ 

….I was trying to catch a feeling – from the first night of my painting retreat when I walked to the edge of the lake and a bright moon was moving through and scattering clouds – in the sky and by my feet in the water…and way across from where I stood someone had a light on…It was mesmerizing -and worked on this little painting for many days trying to catch that experience

I’m delighted to have been invited to exhibit my paintings in the show ‘The Mirror Blue Night’ curated by Patrick Neal at the Undercroft Gallery in The Church of the Heavenly Rest –  (next to The Guggenheim)

Alongside a unique and fantastic group of artists – 
Poogy Bjerklie, John Elliott, Alyssa E. Fanning, Cora Jane Glasser, Erik Hanson, Adam Hurwitz, Elisa Jensen, Tamara Krendel, Pamela Lawton, Donna Levinstone, Kathryn Lynch, Megan Marden, Itty Neuhaus, Emilia Wild Olsen, Sandra Taggart, Tamas Veszi, Lee Lee Walker, Eric Wolf

Opening: Tuesday, September 12, 6-8pm

The Undercroft Gallery/ Church of the Heavenly Rest 
1085 5th Avenue, New York, NY. 
Hours: Daily: 9am- 8pm 

This exhibit runs from September 10th – November 19th, 2023. 

My work on view includes The final Iris print of “The Night Blooming Greenhouse”

And “Night Flight or Sphynx Ascending” I wrote a few paragraphs about the making of these works below, 

…some notes on NightBlooming Greenhouse, w.c./paper 24 x 18 “ ,1989, following the tragic death of my mother by car accident in 1983 I stopped commuting to the Hunnewell estate–where I’d been working on-site in their greenhouses —returning to PA to be with my father and sister who was expecting the first grandchild. I returned briefly in ’84 to complete a painting of the wall of nasturtiums in the wellsley college greenhouses- and worked from still lives and studies in our studio apartment in Boston. Years later expecting our first child – we moved North of Boston into an old house near conservation land and while I was quite pregnant began -transforming the mudroom into what was to be my current studio – raising the ceiling for storage and replacing the walls with glass doors and a large bay window to capitalize on the Southern exposure – always my preference. I painted the Night Blooming greenhouse shortly after my first son was born—referencing paintings I’d done on location at the Hunnewell estate. As I’d painted out of my head for many years before studying observational painting and drawing formally -this was exciting to return to. I added our night blooming cereus as well as my cat- George into the scene. The stars and sky were from memories of my childhood in Vermont lying on a grassy hill when the air was crystal clear and the sky seemed to go on forever.

…..I painted my first extensive series of moths for a curatorial competition I titled Winged & Whispered at FPAC , featuring 6 fabulous artist’s poetic interpretations of winged creatures in a variety of complementary styles and mediums; literally, as in birds, moths, etc., or implied wings or flight through atmosphere or environment. All the works were selected that conveyed a sense of magic, mystery and/or transformation that brought to mind visual poetry. Moths, along with other creatures were also included in other exhibits that I curated at various venues –including: Insecta Poetica at the Essex Art Center and Dreaming the Light, Unfolding the Dark (night moths ascending) & Order Insecta at Concord Arts.

I was/am interested in creatures that inhabit both land, air and sometimes the water as well – as in dragonflies; subjects that forever have been experienced as metaphors for the spirit, transformation and transcendence, although when all is said and done it was the compelling visuals that initially drew me to paint them. 

I’d wanted to paint moths for years – having included them in still lives but not always as my central theme.

For these exhibits I raised my subjects– spending two years raising Luna moths in a huge netted cage inside my studio’s bay window in an attempt to capture something of their mysterious poetry.

I was first captivated by moths as a very young very myopic child, experiencing them as pure magic : messengers drawn to our light from another realm, especially the ones that appeared suddenly out of complete darkness with their hidden flashes of color. The Luna is perhaps the most astonishing of all moths, with its otherworldly hue, brief life span and rare appearances. I also raised monarchs and king swallow tails .The monarch’s unfolding wings, reminded me of the cloaks of abstract flowers and of the gold and jewel-like color in Klimt paintings with their saturated patterning. The king swallow tails were the opposite – their wings like the unfolding curtains of night skies in Persian miniatures.

A subject like butterflies or moths is also an interesting subject to me because they are so beautiful just as they are and because their image has been so commercialized – and very easily becomes “corny” or overly sentimental – To try and move beyond their obvious beauty and butterfly “ness” – was part of the appeal in attempting to reclaim these creatures . So that while they are large depictions of beautiful evocative creatures – it is important to look past the image to the timbre of the lines in the drawings and to the paint qualityin the oils and watercolors. In the watercolors I was very involved in the whole ballet of the medium and there was a great deal of internal struggle between he strokes – and many studies preceded the larger watercolors as I was aiming to simplify the composition, light and expression; each brush stroke was of extreme importance. I wanted to make everything more monolithic in order to communicate their solitary Herculean task of emerging into winged creatures.

As I mentioned, I raised my moths and butterflies in my studio – finding my first Luna moth caterpillar in the middle of a mountain pathway in the wilds of Northern Maine – and then having this first caterpillar begin to spin in my sierra drinking cup as we hiked. Later I was lucky enough to come across another cocoon. I overwintered my cocoons in the bay window of my studio. In the late spring they emerged — the sound was loud like mice crunching crackers as they cut through their silk cocoons. The female produced hundreds of eggs inside their netted cage; I saved about 60 and forty or so caterpillars survived for a month of rapid growth and feeding frenzy to spin cocoons.

A month later, as we were packing up to go to Maine for two weeks – the moths began to emerge – I put down the back of my car and brought their netted cage with me – driving all night with these fluttering lunas behind me – by this time I also had a brood of black swallow tails. I’d found their tiny larvae on my dill plants – their stages are half as long – weeks instead of months.

In Maine I was able to film and paint and sketch the lunas as they continued to emerge—the light was beautiful – if you held the cage up to the trees they completely disappeared the color was so much like all the leaves around our cabin. By the time we were packing up to leave another brood was emerging and despite my better judgement I was gathering leaves and containers and we came back home with many tiny caterpillars.

juror: Shannon Ferrari

December 16th – January 19th, 2024 

Opening on zoom, Th., Dec. 21st, 6pm