Canal Street Art Gallery, 23 Canal St., presents a pair of solo shows: "Water Way" by MC Noyes, premiering the artist's newest series of ink wash paintings, and Judi Forman, showing the artist's newest work creating one-of-a-kind jewelry. Both shows are on view through Feb. 10.
Michael C. Noyes, based in Bellows Falls, has long maintained an oil painting practice which has been influenced by the artist's study of ink wash on paper, and of Chinese calligraphy and painting. The artist's newest series, "Water Way," evolved into using ink wash as a primary medium.
The materials the artist uses include handmade Xuan and Mulberry paper of several thicknesses, each made respectively from the bark of the Blue Sandalwood tree, the Mulberry tree and leaves, and rice stocks, along with other ingredients and lengthy processes used for over a thousand years in China. Brushes consist of natural hairs, all with specific purposes made, for example, from goat, sheep, rabbit, weasel, bear, and horse. The traditional ink sticks are composed of pressed powdered pigments bound with gelatin. These are ground with water on a stone to emulsify a thick ink.
"I am drawn to the immediacy, permanence, and challenge which ink wash painting presents," Noyes wrote in their artist statement. "The traditional techniques are hard to master and involve learning to grind inks to a proper consistency, choosing the paper, brushes, inks and colors to use, and then applying one color at a time. The preparation which goes into one brushstroke is most of the process. This is why calligraphy is practiced to gain the skills needed to paint. It is attempting to control the uncontrollable."
Noyes's first handmade stab bound book of original paintings, a collaboration with Len Emery Photography, is also to be presented during the Water Way solo show, and is entitled "Bubble Book 1." This book is a representation of using bubbles on the surface of flowing water as a visualization tool to detach the mind from intrusive thoughts and bring it back to the present.
Judi Forman, based in Westminster, is a metal artist working with silver, copper, niobium, and steel, using techniques such as anodizing, imprinting texture, and drawing with colored pencil. She uses patinated copper, colored pencil, and silver to create works such as "Three Birds Brooch and Pendant."
Forman often designs compositions inspired by nature, on and with the multiple surfaces she has shaped. Multiple pieces are often riveted together to present the final work. Forman's most recent work, using colored pencil on copper, adds both bright color and texture to the artist's jewelry.
"I find inspiration in the work of my teachers and other jewelry artists, but then it boils down to just what happens between me and the materials," she wrote in her artist statement. "I love the synergy between the metal, my ideas and the tools. Some of my favorite pieces are the result of serendipity such as how a particular piece of copper responds to the heat of a torch on a particular day and acquires a one-of-a-kind patina."
Canal Street Art Gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, go to canalstreetartgallery.com online, call Mike Noyes by phone at 802-289-0104, or send emails to artinfo@canalstreetartgallery.com.
This The Arts item was submitted to The Commons.