Artists to show work in January, February

MADISON >> The Madison Art Society’s Madison town hall artists for January and February are Branford artist Molly McDonald and Madison artist Sandra Kensler.

Both will exhibit their artwork at 8 Campus Drive, Madison. Both retired teachers, the artists excel in their use of colors, shapes and line. The exhibit is open to the public and can be viewed during regular business hours.

McDonald recently retired from 35 years of teaching art in the Guilford school system. She is an avid painter, with three degrees from Southern Connecticut State University.

“My style is direct, whether abstract or representational,” she said. “Broad pencil marks, fluid brush strokes, and a paint loaded palette knife are my tools. In still life, landscape or figure, abstract or representational, I respond to life experiences past and present. Colors abutting, lines lain out, edges defined or not, become my mode for ongoing intuitive conversation with materials and ideas.” To see more of her work, visit www.facebook.com/artistmollysmcdonald

Kensler exchanged her music teaching career for life as a painter. She has developed a love for the process of “painting flat” using blocks of vivid color in well defined shapes to capture the moment and express her vision. “I exaggerate color and simplify shape and shadows,” she said. “I try to make my paintings of real things more contemporary and more abstract by paring down design, tight cropping, unusual angles, flattened forms, highlighted color and sharp-edge contour line.” Visit www.KenslerArt.com to learn more.

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO “Bayside,” oil on canvas, by Molly McDonald.