The Southern Berks News

Gallery to exhibit ‘The Language of Color.’

- From Denise A. Spatarella

The Hill’s School’s Boyer Gallery, 760 Beech St., Pottstown, is excited to host the exhibit, The Language of Color Exhibit, acrylic paintings by area artist Mary Kane. The exhibit of paintings is running now through February 23. Guests may view the exhibit Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., with Saturday and Sunday hours by appointmen­t. Please note the Gallery will be closed January 29-31.

Mary Kane is an accomplish­ed, award-winning area artist residing in Chester Springs. Mary began painting at an early age, always loving patterns she saw in nature. She was always thinking outside the box. After earning a B.F.A. in painting, sculpture and art history from Ohio State University, she added more life drawing and painting classes at VCU in Richmond and at American University. She then taught art in public and private schools in Northern Virginia.

After moving to the Philadelph­ia area, she studied with top art instructor­s, layering on and building more experience and confidence in painting — moving from realism to abstractio­n.

Her abstract paintings have won many awards from prominent jurors. One described her painting as “a symphony of color, rhythms, intervals, and vibrations . . . as if we were seeing music. One must take time to listen.”

“Although I majored in fine art and painting and have a layering of art school experience­s, I feel I have had to unlearn much of what I was taught, or rather turn around what teachers have warned me against, to make their “no-nos” into possibilit­ies that work,” shares Kane.

“In order to break down the fear of seeing a large white canvas in front of me, I have to blindly throw paint on it to begin. If I start with one idea, it changes many times before I stop as the painting leads me on in a meditative process.

“I love what I see in Chester County — the barns, hills, trees, the birds — and after a digestive process I enjoy reducing those images into basic shapes and simplified design. Compose. Simplify. Eliminate the unnecessar­y. Calm down. Open up. Stop judging it. Be decisive. Don’t erase. Keep it fresh. Stop! But I still struggle, feeling the necessity to erase and paint over until somehow, finally — hello — I give birth to a painting that works. I have surprised myself. When is the painting finished? Perhaps when the telephone rings.”

 ?? SUBMITTED PHOTO ?? Art by Mary Kane
SUBMITTED PHOTO Art by Mary Kane

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