BELLOWS FALLS — Canal Street Art Gallery, 23 Canal Street, presents “Life,” a collection of artworks displaying awe, coexistence, and mindfulness of life featuring artists Judy Hawkins, Carol Keiser, and MC Noyes, on view through Feb. 11.
Hawkins, based in Westminster West, paints using layers and glazes of brilliant and high contrast color which is built up, removed, and reapplied, to make landscapes which share the artist's awe for life. She paints with the intention of learning something new from each experience during the process, paying attention to paint drips and accidental color combinations. This practice of change is approached by Hawkins as an opportunity to learn and refresh life each time she works.
“Over the last few years, I have thought about how important it is for me to continually learn something new whenever I put brush and color on canvas; each new experience brings a new perspective and vocabulary to my work, not unlike life,” Hawkins wrote. “I am in awe of nature. It never ceases to amaze and inspire me.”
Keiser, based in Putney, paints using vivid colors and large shapes to show pleasure and delight in subjects like women at leisure, floral still lifes, interiors, and landscapes. Keiser's new series is of life in Zambia, Africa: buffalo, elephants, giraffes, lions, leopards, and zebras, experienced by the artist in the plains and on the Zambezi river.
This series stands out from Keiser's typical work with a color palette more representative of the animals and their surroundings, used by the artist to approach the subjects with awe and respect.
“To watch the herds of buffalo, or elephants or giraffes or zebras move slowly across the plains, grazing, playing, protecting the young, was like watching a great dance of harmony and synchrony, of acknowledging that there is space for all of us in this universe, that coexistence is possible and real,” writes Keiser.
MC Noyes, based in Bellows Falls, paints with broad gestures and thick layers of paint to represent the movement, pattern, and light of the landscape. Noyes applies layers of paint while still wet, mixing colors on the canvas, painting over the same brushstrokes to preserve the gestures. Noyes says his new series, Water Way, is created from observing the movements and patterns of water, and the use of this imagery as a meditation tool in his daily life.
“The concept of my Water Way series is using bubbles on the surface of flowing water as a visualization to detach the mind from intrusive thoughts and bring it back to the present. This series of paintings is a representation of this imagery. The fast current is moving away from the viewer's perspective, up the tall vertical canvases to an unseen horizon,” MC Noyes wrote.
Canal Street Art Gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information about this show or Canal Street Art Gallery, visit canalstreetartgallery.com online, call Mike by phone at 802-289-0104, or send emails to artinfo@canalstreetartgallery.com.