Artist Updates III: Mary Chiaramonte

Mary Chiaramonte reports that she has had a relaxing summer in Virginia, spending time with family and catching up with old friends:

“I guess the most interesting thing that has happened this summer was the new freckle I got on my right pointer finger. No, my existence must be the most abysmally dull of all the artists at the NK gallery, because all I do is paint and stare at the neighbors from the porch view, but there have been some high points even still. My twin sis had a slide show at the flower garden behind her house at night (with romance lighting to boot) and that was quite wonderful indeed. There were a great deal of people there and everyone had a blast, so much so that I didn't sleep until the sun was rising, a lot of noise. The men were sliding down the stairs on their bellies, face first. But she had 365 photographs, one that she took for each day of 2007. Of them all, the best was a shot of her spaying my parents' dog at the clinic where she is a veterinarian. It was grotesque and beautiful at once. And a dear friend of mine of 15 years came back to visit me after her journey across South America. Hearing her stories and just getting to see her again was quite good. Other than that, it is the porch and the hissy fits of the lonesome life, but from this I have discovered a lot of new music that I love, so. Oh, and I have made my first two encaustic paintings. Smells like bees.”

Mary Chiaramonte, Jessie Man XVIII, encaustic, 2008, 12” x 8”

“Dull” sounds pretty good to me! We have a number of Mary Chiaramonte’s paintings up in the gallery now and will be getting some new pieces next week.

Mary Chiaramonte, "Tulsa", mixed media, 2008, 20” x 15”

Artist Updates II: Ellyn Weiss

Ellyn Weiss has been spending her summer in Cape Cod and has been very busy indeed. Perhaps “infected by seaside colors” she created the first painting she has done “in many moons.” Big Day, seen below, was created with no brushes but mostly with hands and plastic gloves.

Ellyn Weiss, “Big Day”, 2008, oil on canvas with shredded cheesecloth

She also spent a week painting with tar and other “odd and toxic substances” at Castle Hill Center for the Arts in Truro.

Ellyn Weiss, Tar painting, 2008, tar, solvent, and shellac

Throughout the summer, she been participating in workshops at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and working there independently in the printshop on a press once owned by Robert Motherwell. She took one workshop in drypoint, a printmaking technique involving drawing into a metal or plexiglass plate with very sharp tools, and started a small series based on images of nerve cells.

Ellyn Weiss, Nerve Cell series, 2008, drypoint etchings

Check out Ellyn’s blog for more on her summer adventures. We have a number of her prints and oil bar pieces available in the gallery.

Summer Artist Updates I

We certainly are missing our creatively talented employee and faithful blogger Laura who as some of you may know has gone on to further pursue her interests in graphic and web design. We will do our best to keep the blog going starting with keeping you posted on what some of the gallery’s artists have been up to this summer.

Congratulations to Sondra Arkin and Laurel Hausler for their summer solo exhibitions!

Sondra Arkin’s show “Topography” opened this past weekend at Ward Ellinger Gallery in Rehoboth Beach, DE. I recently got a sneak peak of the work and saw her in the act of creating some of her encaustics in her studio. In addition to encaustic paintings, the exhibition features richly hued oil paintings. Take a trip to the beach and stop by and see the show which runs through August 28th with an opening reception on August 9th, 5 to 7 pm.

Sondra Arkin, Wildflowers, 2008, oil on canvas, 40” x 40”

Laurel Hausler’s exhibition “My House is Haunted: Twenty Rooms” is currently on view at Gallery in the Woods in Brattleboro, VT through August 30th. The show presents twenty paintings each representing a room or part of the grounds of a haunted house.

Laurel Hausler, The Attic, 2008, oil on canvas, 24” x 36”

We have several of Sondra's encaustic pieces currently on display at the gallery. We also have many of Laurel's paintings hanging. We will be hosting a solo exhibition of Laurel's works this fall. Additional details will be announced later.