TIMOTHY HORN
“Deep Blue” New works by Timothy Horn September 5th – October 1st, 2019 Gleason Fine Art Boothbay Harbor, ME (207) 633-6849 gleasonfineart.com timhornart.com “Another New Day” 20” x 24” oil on canvas
find the exact location where the setting sun’s rays are illuminating a sliver of the Gabilan Mountains under a heavy purple cloud. It is the light that gives this landscape its form… shadows rounding the foothills or creating sharp linear patterns across the fields.”
In Off Foster Road After the Rain, 2019, she portrays one of those fleeting moments after the passing rain clouds have soaked the fields and the setting sun turns them into a symphony of color.
Rick Stevens is a frequent denizen of the aspen groves in the mountains above Santa Fe, New Mexico. He delves beyond the visible characteristics of the landscape to its mystical core. He says, “My work may be seen as an open window to other realms… I think of nature as a continuous flow of shapes and patterns of energy that has, or more precisely is, an intelligent force. There has been a resurgence in the field of science (especially in physics) that corresponds with the domain of mystics. Matter and energy are interchangeable, all the forces and particles in nature are one, just different ripples on the ocean of consciousness: a unified field.”
In Facing the Mystery, the aspen grove opens up to reveal more than we can see, but embodying what we can feel, what we are part of.
Sometimes the landscape and its context become one. In Flight Into Rain, David Grossmann paints a flock of geese flying above the horizon, headed for a rain shower in which the horizon disappears. Grossmann spends time in the landscape connecting to its “stillness and beauty.” His scenes are impressions of many scenes he has absorbed in his walks, runs and drives through the countryside around his Colorado home. Fascinated by surface texture and the application of paint, he doesn’t begin painting until he has arranged and rearranged the basic shapes into a pleasing composition.
He says, “I like to think of my paintings as prayers and as visual poems. They are simplified rhythms of color, light and shape. On the surface they are quiet whispers, but I hope that they convey a depth of emotion to anyone who takes the time to stop and listen.”
The landscape is fleeting because light on the land—casting shadows and enhancing the mood of the sky and earth—is never the same. Each moment is individual to the instant it was seen. Artists often venture on location to capture these moments in plein air, or make sketches and take photographs to translate the image back in their studio. Some even use their memories or recollections as
jumping off points for imagined imagery. This special section delves into all aspects of the landscape—real and make-believe.
Blue Rain Gallery in Santa Fe represents the landscape paintings of Matthew Sievers. His works often focus on rural landscapes, and the seasonal changes that happen in that area of the country. “Growing up in rural Idaho laid the groundwork for my love of natural landscapes,” Sievers says. “I’ve always enjoyed spending time in the outdoors and have been awestruck by the majesty found in nature. When I create a landscape painting, I want it to pull the viewer in, and for them to feel their emotions stirred by its untamed wildness and serene beauty.”
Edgewood Gallery, with locations in Vermont, Montana and Boston, believes that collectors should feel a connection to the artist’s interpretation of the landscape. Rory Jackson is one landscape painter represented by the gallery. He is devoted to capturing the beauty of the lands and skies where he lives in Vermont. His painting Any Way You Go depicts the drama of the late afternoon light on the mountains and fields in autumnal Vermont.
“My aim is to foster a relationship between the earth and the people who hold covenant with it,” says Jackson. “Whether it is through light, reflection, movement or design, I want to bring everlasting life to a moment in time.”
Located in the picturesque city of Boothbay Harbor, Maine, Gleason Fine Art is not short on landscape paintings to offer collectors, including the works of Henry Isaacs. “Henry has always been able to handle a brush, but the Nepal works have a new balance of composition, color and mark making to me,” explains gallery owner Dennis Gleason. “They feel like they have more energy than ever because they represent the culmination of what he’s been trying to do for the past few years. It’s all been pointing toward this moment, this body of work.”
Gelena Pavlenko’s painting Last Warmth was featured in the Salmagundi Club landscape exhibition and Lotton Gallery is honored to have acquired this painting for its collection. As the gallery explains, “Pavlenko was the 2017 purchase prize winner, which the famed club selects only one a year. Her passion to create beautiful and interesting landscapes brings her immense joy. Heaven is a landscape she painted while still living in the Ukraine; she dreamed of this meadow from childhood. Known for her delicate flowers, she paints soft peonies in their natural state.”
Karen Larson Turner, the foremost landscape artist at Wells Gallery, enjoys exploring individual aspects of the land
scape. She says, “My favorite thing to paint is skies. The sky is what sets the mood in a landscape, [it is] a great opportunity to play with light. The skies are constantly changing, each time of day or shift in clouds offering something new, whether it is the luminosity of a moonrise or drama of a sunset. I absolutely love to paint storms and have become a bit of a storm chaser. There is such power in a stormy sky. It reveals how small we really are, how much we are at the mercy of nature, yet a small burst of light in that dark sky can represent hope.”
Artists of Northwest Arkansas was founded in 1991 and began sponsoring regional art competitions in 1997. Twentyfour years of population growth and the opening of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in 2011 has brought profound changes and opportunity for the local artists. To celebrate its 25th year, the group has elected to take its Celebration of Art show national and allow anyone in the United States to compete. The response has been positive and because of the dates and location—September 5 to 28 at the Fayetteville Town Center—it is expected to be viewed by 4,000 to 5,000 visitors. It will be a diverse show, with all genres, mediums and styles represented, including three-dimensional art and photography.
For artist Alex Tolstoy, all subjects are fair game for inspiration, but her scenic work typically “focuses on a mood, hoping for a thoughtful, quiet setting where the viewer can wander around and find a moment or two for reflection,” she explains. “Snow makes for a wonderful, light atmosphere, while the absence of people (even in villages) keeps things contemplative. Watercolor is particularly expressive with an element of randomness and unpredictability.”
Based in Canada, Darlene Kulig paints semiabstracted spirited landscapes. Her newest series focuses on the Canadian Rockies and, as with all of her artwork, plays off her experience as a graphic designer through color and form. “The designer in me
loves bold shape and color, while my artist’s soul loves the visceral connection with the sentient quality of the landscape,” she says. “I paint the beauty, joy and peaceful quiet of the world around us. It makes me happy.”
Primarily a self-taught artist, David W. Trout believes that the learning process for an artist never ends. “I consider myself to be a landscape and still life artist working mainly in oils,” says Trout, who had some formal training at the Studio School of Art and Design and the Hussian School of Art in Philadelphia. “My objective is to capture the subtle nuances of light within the subject. This portrayal of light and atmosphere has become my signature style.”
Dick McEvoy is recognized for his vibrant abstract impressionist works in oil and enamel or in pastel. According to Peter Hasting Falk, chief art curator and editor of RediscoveredMasters, “While his large canvases are still recognizable landscapes, and are delightfully enlivened with Monet’s brilliant red coquelicots, daisies and bachelors’ buttons bathed in sunlight, they dance atop fields of grass that could have been painted by Pollock.”
Artist Elsa Sroka says her landscapes come from an unconscious place. “I am a big fan of my dreams. I allow my imagination to direct these works. I am moved by an abstract representation of a landscape. Allowing me to have my own conversation,” she says. “Growing up in Colorado, and taking many visits to the mountains nearby, one may think I would be influenced by, or drawn to paint these glorious typical Colorado scenes. Rather the opposite, I like to create my own special place, taking all the visual information and putting it together on a surface.”
Günther Haidenthaller emigrated with his family from Austria as a child, and grew up drawing and painting. His interest in art continued through junior high and high school, and he majored in illustration and advertising design at Utah State University. He then spent 26 years in advertising graphic design and art direction, with occasional illustration projects to keep things interesting. Haidenthaller left full-time employment in 2015 to pursue his passion for painting.
“Being Austrian, I am haunted by the ethereal, dreamlike quality of light in the moisture-laden European atmosphere,” says Haidenthaller. “I strive to express that longing in every image I create and hope that the viewer will feel my vision. Art is all about passion, and this is mine.”
For Jenny Wilson, making art is a meditative process steeped in the desire to create something beautiful and serene that will resonate with the viewer. She works in acrylic, carefully applying layers to create
an illuminated sense of atmosphere. Her landscape paintings become layered stories that have multiple interpretations. Canyon Road Contemporary Art in Santa Fe represents Wilson.
According to artist Kathy Anderson, “My inspiration for anything I choose to paint is always the same—an excitement about the subject which translates in my head to something I have to put down on canvas, to say to the viewer ‘look at this, isn’t it amazing?’ Then I start the work of figuring out how best to convey that emotion.”
Artist Morgan Samuel Price says, “The magical light of the late afternoon inspires my pursuit of that specific moment.” Two of her paintings, Waiting in Dry Dock and Palms in Motion, she explains, “were equally compelling at that hour of the day.” When it comes to collecting art, Price advises collectors to choose what speaks to their emotions, because their enjoyment for the work will last.
Richard A. Johnson paints the landscape at different times of day and in various seasons. He says, “The light at the end of the day is sometimes spectacular. My painting November Light was inspired when I saw light on the trees while waiting to pick up my grandson from day care— bright light on the trees in the background and the trees in the foreground in shadows with a pale moon rising.”
His painting The Quiet Place was derived from photos of lake reflections and ones he took of a deer in his backyard. Johnson liked how the deer tied everything in the composition together. A different painting, The Fly By, started with a cypress landscape, but over the next six months birds began to show up.
Throughout his illustrious career, master artist Richard Schmid has evoked the natural world through landscapes and floral paintings. In 1998, he said, “Somewhere within all of us there is a wordless center,
a part of us that hopes to be immortal in some way, a part that has remained unchanged since we were children. It is the source of our strength and compassion. That faint confluence of the tangible and the spiritual is where art comes from.”
Roger Dale Brown is often inspired to paint during his travels, whether it be trips to Maine or abroad. While he was exploring Boothbay Harbor, Brown came across the two dories that inspired Journeys End. The work is aptly titled, as he explains the boats would see no more action. “No more fishing and casting of nets,” he says. “They had been pulled ashore after their last trip out and left as they were. Two relics as a reminder of how things used to be.”
Brown and his wife, artist Beverly Ford Evans, spent six weeks in the Highlands of Scotland painting. The beauty was inspiration for one of his first paintings of the
country, Highlands, which came from a trek to the summit of Munro.
Omitting fine details in scenery, Sally Ruddy creates a setting that transports her viewers into her intimate memories of family and self. Dreamlike and sentimental, her paintings vibrate with color and intrinsic emotion. “Fabulous Fall is the result of my intrigue with the negative spaces between the branches of the peach trees, each one a little window framed by branches,” Ruddy says. “The repetition creates rhythm and the pattern reminds me of braided hair. Most of the leaves had fallen in this autumn orchard, so I decided to paint some leaves back on the trees to balance the colors.” Another work by Ruddy, Fresh Air, is a reminder of the fresh springtime greens and pastels. Sandra Hildreth says her passion is for plein air painting because she can combine two things she loves: painting and being outdoors. Her paintings are visual records of her experiences in the wild places she finds intriguing. “How the light changed, how the breeze ruffled the reflection in a lake or when the deer stepped cautiously out of the woods,” she says. “I often return to paint
places in the Adirondack Mountains where I live, and I take great pride in recording the changes of the seasons and the weather—how brilliant a green the new growth of an evergreen is in the spring, and how the tamaracks turn gold near the end of October. My paintings tell the story of how nature passes time.”
Stephanie Amato works in alla prima to create impressionistic landscapes, seascapes and figurative compositions. She explains, “When working on location, I look for inspiration which can be from the light shining on a building, to reflections sparkling in a body of water.”
With her paintings Sant’Anna and View from Pienza, Stephanie K. Johnson’s goal was “to bring the techniques of the Dutch Masters into a contemporary setting,” she says. “I desired to capture the feeling of atmosphere and subtleties of light in each painting, creating a celebration of beauty discovered in our natural world.”
In all of his paintings, Steven S. Walker says he tries to capture a solitary elegance. “It’s all about engaging the viewer in ‘the moment,’ whether it’s a quaint country house on a sunny day or a storm approaching an empty field,” Walker shares. “To capture a forgotten area or structure in a single moment in time and to be able to share that experience with others is what makes the creative process worthwhile.”
The inspiration for Timothy Horn’s series of Maine paintings, he says, “began when I was 9 years old and our family went on a two-week camping trip to Maine and Nova Scotia. I remember loving the coast of Maine, with its classic architecture, harbors full of lobster boats and views of distant islands.”
It wasn’t until about 30 years later that he visited Maine again. “This time [it was] to attend a class at the Wooden Boat School
in Brooklin, Maine,” he says. “The following year I went back again to spend time painting the coastal towns. And for the last 20 years, I’ve been making almost annual trips to Maine to teach painting workshops, or to just paint on my own. Monhegan Island [depicted in Shimmer and Blue Barrel] with its rich history of painters, is a wonderful place to teach and to paint.”
According to Viondette Lopez, “A landscape is a memory lived or a vision yet to be lived. Landscapes are not only places, but the scene setters for experiences that make us who we are. When we look at a landscape, we see life through the lens and heart of an artist who has captured something unique and expressed it in an emotive way. In True Grit we catch a snapshot of what appears to be a serene setting, but symbolizes the unspoken and even dark challenges of religion nowadays.” Another of Lopez’s paintings, titled Shadows and Other Places, is a comment on “man’s need for identity in an increasingly complex global landscape.”