&Company
Quidley
Fine Art
In Good Company
&Company
Quidley
Fine Art
26 Main Street - Nantucket, MA 02554 - 508.228.4300 38 Newbury Street - Boston, MA 02116 - 617.450.4300 www.QuidleyAndCo.com
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“Thanks to art, instead of seeing a single world, our own, we see it multiply until we have before us as many worlds as there are original artists.� - Marcel Proust
Dear Collectors and Friends, It is with great pleasure that I present to you our 2012 catalog. Contained within is our annual “best of,” a carefully curated collection of paintings from our roster of artists, each renowned in their style and genre. Each piece was developed exclusively for inclusion in this catalog, and represents the artists’ favored expression of their talents. This year, you will notice thoughtful enhancements to our offering. We continually recruit top talent for our roster, and have succeeded in obtaining several highly accomplished artists whose work pushes beyond boundaries you may previously have expected from Quidley & Company Fine Art. Remaining true to our mission, we continue to select and offer you the very best works from artists in the realm of representational realism. This year, you will find our collection to be more eclectic. We are pleased to announce our Boston gallery has relocated to 38 Newbury Street. After several years in our prior location, we realized we could better serve you, our collectors, in a more private and comfortable setting. Please visit us if you have not had the opportunity to do so already. I look forward to seeing you in the coming months, and having the opportunity to discuss these new artists and their works with you. Chris Quidley
David Graeme Baker (American, b. 1968) Baker’s art clearly follows life. His paintings are full of the everyday objects that clutter our lives. The narrative paintings he creates lead the viewer to move about the composition, between these relatable objects, creating stories of their own. “Collectors sometimes ask me what a painting is about,” says Baker, “I want to give them something, but I also want to make sure viewers have their own experiences that are very personal to them. “It takes weeks for me to make a painting, but often it takes months for me to plan it out and do studies. Painting is a meditative process for me. I’ve created a routine—a process whereby I explore a visual idea, bringing it to life with paint while reflecting upon a tangle of narrative threads drawn from my life.” - David Graeme Baker Born in South Africa, Baker grew up in Pennsylvania and graduated from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, following in the tradition of American Realists like Thomas Eakins. “One could argue that all paintings are autobiographical....and mine would be no exception, though I would go a bit farther to say that by the time I finish a painting, I empathize with all the characters in a painting. The narrative painter is like a novelist, he must explore the psyche of the characters in order to give them credibility.
Study for Vacationland 16” x 18” oil on linen mounted on panel
“The outcomes, rather than clean, iconic meta-images or narratives, are paintings with more purposefully modest, tangled, personal threads that function as springboards for empathetic contemplation. The resulting paintings are a mix of reality, memory, and fiction”. - David Graeme Baker “His pictures don’t shout overt statements; they whisper compelling questions… In exploring the personal, Baker’s paintings illuminate the universal… His pictures hint at the bittersweet mystery of existence.” - Kim Ridley, Down East Magazine
Sean Beavers (American, b. 1970) Creating artwork has been Beavers’ focus and expressive outlet since childhood. He attended the School of Visual Arts in New York on scholarship, and graduated with the Rhodes Family Medal for outstanding achievement. He is a rare artist in that he has found equal success painting across genres, including landscape, figurative, and still life. His technical abilities are made more powerful by his keen sense of composition and design. His works are in the collections of AT&T, The Wall Street Journal, The Turner Networks, Time Life Inc., Cunard Cruise Lines, Random House, Harper Collins, and many others. Beavers was drawn to the New England coast a decade ago. He now resides in southern Maine and teaches painting at the nearby New Hampshire Institute of Art and at the University of New Hampshire. Beavers feels the peaceful environment brings his life and his art closer to nature. “When I study something in nature there is a connection or understanding that I can’t describe, the beauty just moves me. When I say beauty I don’t mean sweet or sentimental. Nature can be quite harsh at times, but there is always balance in it, something melodic to offset the dissonance. It’s that relationship between beauty and despair, that truth, that’s what moves me, that’s what I’m after. Painting forces me to study and understand a thing or an idea, to spend so much time with something that I can really begin to see it, not just look at something as I’m passing by, but to really start to understand the subtleties that make each thing or situation or emotion unique. “I am trying to create through the language of light, color and space. I think of my work as symbolist. The subjects of my paintings usually represent something other than the objects themselves, like dreams, desires, frustrations, spirit, emotions, whatever I’m thinking about at the time.” - Sean Beavers
Lilium Lux 16” x 28” oil on linen mounted on panel
Doug Brega (American, b. 1948) Brega’s talent continues to attract new admirers who recognize the freshness of his New England portraits and landscapes. His dedication to his subjects and to the tradition of American Realism is maintained with such integrity that his work has been widely acknowledged for its important contribution to contemporary art. A native of Eastern Massachusetts, Brega’s principal art studies took place at the Paier College in New Haven, CT. There he studied under the noted tromp l’oeil artist Ken Davies, who impressed upon him the importance of drawing as a foundation, something that was very out of fashion at the time. Brega’s images have been described as “sensitive,” “richly detailed,” “insightful,” and his style “spontaneous,” “precise and technically mature.” But words fail to capture the visual and emotional impact that greets the viewer coming to Brega’s work for the first time. His subjects are familiar and well loved, yet rendered in a flawless technique and imbued by the artist with a simple grandeur that transcends the objective reality of the world he paints.
Kristin at Marshall Point 22” x 29” watercolor
His works are found in numerous private and corporate collections, including two private collections which are listed in the top 100 collections in the country, as well as the permanent collection of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and Design in Kansas City, MO, the Springfield Museum of Fine Arts, MA, and the Albrecht-Kemper Museum in St. Joseph, MO. “What I strive for is a precise and honest interpretation, not a mirror of reality or a personal comment about a subject… They are sturdy, uncomplicated buildings and homes. The beauty is found in the clean forms and solid function of each architectural element.” - Doug Brega
Matthew Cornell (American, b. 1964) Born in California, Cornell’s first memories are of traveling across the United States in a car. “Every year we traveled across the US and I spent most of my time looking out of the window and observing the landscape and weather. We moved a lot and I got to see almost every part of this country. It was a blessing. It made me aware of the variety and the vastness the United States has to offer.” Cornell has been exploring concepts through a series of wave paintings, noting “I would really like to move some of my work away from straight realism into a realm between opposing worlds of abstraction and reality. “The ocean can be so many things, but one thing for sure it should be, is respected. It is an indomitable force that cannot be contained. The sea will do whatever it wants and we must abide by its wishes. Woe unto the man who is arrogant and prideful who thinks this not. I have so many dreams in which I am standing on the edge of the sea and the waves crash at my feet, slowly getting higher and higher, until they overtake me. I am swept away by the sheer power and relentless surge of the water and I am terrified, yet equally calmed by and in awe of its beauty. “I have always loved the ocean. It can express many emotions and it certainly is the true essence of creation and destruction, a concept that permeates a lot of my paintings. Maybe there is a rhythm to the waves that connects it to our own rhythm. The crashing waves on the shore like a heartbeat. The push and pull of the water like making love. It is about balance. It is about adaptation. It is about equilibrium. The ocean reaches for us and we reach for it. When we get close enough, it literally pulls us in. Maybe that is why I paint waves.” - Matthew Cornell
Mediterraneo 50” x 66” oil on canvas
William R. Davis (American, b. 1952) William Davis has spent his life on Cape Cod, unavoidably surrounded and inspired by life on the sea. He is truly inspired by the natural beauty of his native Cape Cod’s pristine coastlines, and has more recently taken to the forests and mountains of northern New England. His paintings show a deep admiration for and influence by the 19th century American painters he collected as a dealer. Davis had always been drawing and painting, but once he spent extended time with the works of these masters in the late 1970’s, he began seriously painting every evening after work. Davis started selling his paintings to Cape Cod locals in 1978, and by 1983 he had made the switch to painting full-time. Painting plein air in the virgin forests and majestic mountain vistas of New England, Davis feels a great affinity with the Hudson River School artists, who were inspired by these very same scenes in nature.
Foggy Bank of Monomoy 16” x 24” oil on panel
His marine paintings developed out of local scenes, and the rich maritime history of Cape Cod. Being so heavily influenced by early American painting, there is a deliberate naiveté in his paintings that relate them to early folk art. Davis also took cues from James Bard and Antonio Jacobson, particularly in their use of line and composition. As Davis progressed in his work, he took inspiration from those who painted the very same beaches and ports one hundred and fifty years earlier, specifically Fitz Henry Lane and luminist Martin Johnson Heade. Davis’ admiration for the early American masters is reflected in his work. Davis has developed a unique style that continues this artistic lineage. His marine and landscape paintings evoke the timeless quality of the masters who preceded him.
Don Demers (American, b. 1956) Demers’ interest in painting maritime subjects began while spending his summers on the coast of Maine near Boothbay Harbor. Crewing aboard schooners, square-riggers and other traditional craft provided both the foundation for his technical expertise and the vision to transfer his first-hand experience to the canvas. His love of sailing has not diminished over the years. He began his career as an illustrator and soon expanded into the field of marine painting. A move to Maine in 1984 marked a shift in his work in which illustration yielded to marine and landscape painting. Illustration serves as a diversion from the demands of fine art and over the years Reader’s Digest, Sail Magazine, Field & Stream, National Geographic, and other magazines in addition to several book publishers, have called on Demers to create visual illumination for the written word. Feature articles on his paintings in publications ranging from American Artist to Yachting Magazine have generated great interest in his art and his story; texts such as Yachts on Canvas by James Taylor, A Gallery of Marine Art by Rockport Publishers and an instructional textbook entitled Marine Painting Techniques of Modern Masters by Susan Rayfield provide insight into his technique, philosophy and vision. Demers’ diverse talent has enabled him to offer expertise to clients ranging from American Airlines to the National Park Service, with projects as varied as creating art for national television advertisements and designing art glass for Steuben. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Marine Artists and has won a record number of awards (nine) at the Mystic International Marine Exhibition, Mystic, CT. His illustrations have been recognized four times by the Museum of American Illustration in their national competition as representing the finest examples of work in the field. A master of communication about his art form, Demers conducts workshops for artists and lectures on his art and maritime experiences. His audiences include museums, art clubs and associations, yacht clubs, historical societies and educational institutions.
Into the Bay 18” x 28” oil on canvas mounted on panel
Flick Ford (American, b. 1954) Born in Atlanta, Flick Ford was raised in Westchester County, NY. He fell in love with fishing at age five. His father, an accomplished fly-fisherman and talented commercial artist/ copywriter, instilled in him a deep respect for nature and nurtured his early creativity. Throughout the 1960s and 70s Ford fished the northeastern United States and Quebec, while pursuing two other passions: music and art. He took formal watercolor classes and figure drawing and graphic design classes before studying art at Evergreen State College in Washington. Ford moved to New York City in 1978 and dove into the audio/visual scene of independent film, video, underground publishing, cartooning, illustration; he also reconnected with music. He left New York in 1993, heading for the Hudson Highlands where he quickly became obsessed with fishing the New York City watershed. Ford began painting the fish he caught, striving to capture their “iridescent beauty.”
Bluefin 30” x 40” watercolor
He fishes more than one hundred days a year and ties his own flies. Along with painting, Ford is a talented musician and graphic artist. His love of angling and the natural world has led him to specialize in fine art paintings of fish. Flick Ford’s work has been published in two recent bestselling books, Fish: 77 Great Fish of North America (Greenwich Workshop Press, 2006) and Big: The 50 Greatest World Record Catches (Greenwich Workshop Press, 2008). “We live in a time when our few successes with riverine rehabilation must be tempered by our failures to protect our waters overall. If we do not act quickly to reverse our follies in water management for the benefit of all living things we will perish along with the fish we cherish. “I’m hoping that viewing the breath-taking beauty of these creatures as portrayed simply in the style I employ will strike a sympathetic chord with all who view them.” - Flick Ford
Douglas Freed (American, b. 1944) Douglas Freed, an abstract landscape artist, captures a variety of atmospheric elements throughout his work; the mystical light found in nature, the haze in the distance on humid summer days, the overcast gloom of winter skies, the softness of landscapes bathed in gold, and the quieting mood of approaching darkness. The accessibility of his paintings draws the viewer in, bringing them to a meditative space. Freed’s paintings emanate peace, spirituality, and balance. The compositions of the artist’s work tend to be monumental, thus adding to the contemplative effect. Freed, born in 1944 and raised in Ulysses, KS, received his undergraduate and graduate degrees at Kansas State University in Fort Hays. The abstract-expressionist works of Barnett Newman and Mark Rothko and the structured geometric abstractions of Mondrian with their philosophical and spiritual underpinnings affected the artist deeply. Since Freed began exhibiting his art in the 1970s, his paintings and works on paper have been continuously shown and sold across the United States in hundreds of group shows and over fifty solo exhibitions to date. He has accomplished all this while working fulltime, until quite recently, as an arts professional in academia and the museum world. His work is in the museum collections of the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, the St. Louis Art Museum, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, the Mildred Kemper Museum of Art, the Springfield Museum of Art, and the Museum of Art and Archeology at the University of Missouri in Columbia. “I try to find the grey area between traditional landscape painting and its abstraction into color fields. The compositions are about ambiguities of form and void, foreground and background and surface and deep space… My work continues in its evolution of style the search for an abstract means of probing the ambiguities of physical and spiritual experience of light, and its power to foster a more intense life of the spirit through profound emotional experience of form, color and composition.” - Douglas Freed
Refrain (diptych) 32” x 38” overall, oil on canvas
Daniel Graves (American, b. 1949) Graves graduated from the Maryland Art Institute in 1972 where he studied with Joseph Shepard and Frank Russell. He continued his studies with Richard Serrin at the Villa Schifanoia Graduate School of Fine Art in Florence, Italy. Following a course of training with Richard Lack in Minneapolis, MN, he taught at the Atelier Lack Studio of Fine Art. In the late 1970s, Graves returned to Florence and undertook individual study with Nerina Simi who maintained a classical nineteenth-century studio. Ms. Simi was the daughter of the Florentine painter Filadelfo Simi who had studied with JeanLeon Gerome, the head of the French Academy in Paris in the 1870s. With such a rich background of training, Graves has created a style of oil painting that blends the Florentine tradition with the draftsmanship of the French Academie Julien. Daniel Graves joined Charles Cecil to found Studio CecilGraves in Florence, which trained many practitioners of classical realism for nearly a decade. In 1991 Graves established the Florence Academy of Art which has been at the forefront of classical realist art education for over twenty years. The Academy recently opened a second school in Gothenburg, Sweden. Graves’ work toured the USA and Europe in Realism Revisited: The Florence Academy of Art in 2003. Practitioners, connoisseurs, and scholars of modern representational art recognize Realism Revisited and its accompanying catalogue as a defining moment in the appreciation and resurgence of classical realist art.
Square Multiples 8” x 8” each, oil on panel
“‘The squares’ are like short stories. Having painted large elaborate paintings for many years it has been a welcome change. They have encouraged me to jot something down without planning. To be more spontaneous, which allows me to experiment with different subjects. Like a painter’s Polaroid, recording impressions, while traveling or in the studio. “Many themes have emerged through the years, clouds, sea, faces, doorways, still-lives, and most recently bridges. My hope is that you will enjoy them as much as I enjoy painting them.” - Daniel Graves
Duncan Hannah (American, b. 1952) Duncan Hannah, a Minneapolis-born Anglophile, summons the spirit of a British esthetic throughout his oeuvre. His recurring subjects, drawn from early to mid-century cinema and literature, include vintage sports cars tooling around the English countryside, the reclusive British film star Nova Pilbeam, and his invented group of adventure-book heroes, the Shipwreck Boys. Hannah is a New York-based figurative painter who has had 50 solo exhibitions in the United States and England since his debut in 1981. He attended Bard College in the early 1970s when the art world was dictated by mass culture and conceptualism, whereas his work was a harkening back to an idealistic era where simplicity and romanticism reigned. Hannah’s paintings offer the viewer quick snapshots of a forgotten past and serve as a meditation of a more fanciful time. In referring to his Penguin Book paperback collection, he comments “I found myself staring at how beautiful they are—it’s the best graphic design I’ve ever seen—and thinking, I wish I could do something with this.” In essence, the artist incorporates elements of Pop and Minimalism while creating narratives and nostalgic scenes that predate those movements. What ultimately makes the artist’s work appealing is the fact that it is an extension of his identity. Hannah’s paintings are represented in collections both nationally and internationally, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Chicago Art Institute, and Mick Jagger’s private collection. Duncan Hannah is the recipient of the 2011 Guggenheim Fellowship. “The roots of my work stem from the romantic imagination of my youth. I made pictures to explore the people and places I was moved by in books and films. As I grew older and studied the history of painting and its practice, I realized that these desires could provide a framework for a lifetime of painterly investigations. Although each painting is a self-sufficient entity, together they seem to make up a fictional world that resonates with me.” - Duncan Hannah
Punting on the Cam 44” x 36” oil on canvas
Jeff Hein (American, b. 1974) Jeffrey Hein was born in 1974 in New Windsor, NY. Despite knowing early that he was interested in art, he had little exposure to it as a youth. His education was limited to numerous drawings of his childhood teachers on his schoolbook covers and on backs of handouts. After only one year of schooling, Hein left to serve a 2 year mission for his church. His missionary work ended prematurely when he was diagnosed with cancer. He battled for about a year and a half before he could return to ‘normal life.’ “After that I dated my wife for about six months in New York while I got ready for school and to come out here to do who knows what. I knew I wanted to do art; but I had no money so it was kind of, what next? So I got married and moved out here” Hein says of his move to Salt Lake City, UT. Hein believes his life experiences have helped him to reach his goals as an artist and have inspired much of his work. He completed his study at the University of Utah in 2002, and has been painting professionally and teaching ever since. Hein has been invited to participate in a variety of international shows and has been written up in numerous newspapers and national magazines. It is very rare for an artist to have both great talent and meaningful content at such an early stage in his promising career. In 2007 he opened the Hein Academy, a small atelier inspired school devoted to academic training. Hein currently lives and works in Salt Lake City with his wife and three children. He is devoted to continual growth as an artist and when not spending time with family he works in his downtown studio where he divides his time between painting, teaching, drawing, sculpting, and filmmaking.
Convenient Charity 58” x 36” oil on canvas mounted on panel
“Humanity today is one with, enhanced through, and distorted by innovation and I have embraced modernism and classicism in order to capture this complete modern picture. My goal is also to show the relevance of both classical and abstract art in the modern world by creating work that clearly demonstrates a harmony between them.” - Jeff Hein
Jim Holland (American, b. 1955) Jim Holland was always interested in art, and studied painting while earning a degree in graphic design. During road trips to Cape Cod with college friends, Holland began to develop his style of painting stripped down tranquil scenes. During his 15 year career in advertising and graphic design, Holland spent his free time painting, and in 1995 began painting full time. Jim Holland is known for capturing the soft magical light that drew him, like so many other visitors and artists, to Cape Cod and the Islands. His work portrays scenes and subjects that are unique and represent a specific moment, yet his images are timeless and universal in their appeal. Holland thoughtfully removes unnecessary details and distraction from his subjects, reducing them to their essence. Inspired by the great American painter Edward Hopper (1882-1967), Holland’s paintings often center around elements of the human experience and rarely contain figures. His works are built upon expertly designed compositions. The enduring themes in Holland’s paintings are the light and space near the ocean. “It’s an expansive and peaceful place to me. The colors can be brilliant or nearly monochromatic. A beached catboat or light slanting on clapboards and through windows, these are simple forms I find endlessly fascinating in how different light affects the mood. “I’ll spend hours mixing paints on my palette and establishing an overall color and tonal scheme. Sometimes I feel I am more aptly called a colorist rather than a painter. “My paintings nearly always have a strong sense of light, its color and slant. That certainly holds true when I paint an interior scene. Sometimes I introduce an element that brings the viewer into speculating about the painting’s narrative. In The Blue Shirt we know the room is inhabited but by who? Has the shirt just been removed?” - Jim Holland
The Blue Shirt 30” x 40” oil on canvas
Donald Jurney (American, b. 1945) Jurney’s paintings’ overall effect is of serenity and beauty, while capturing a specific time of day, weather, and other atmospheric effects. Close observation of his work reveals a modern handling of paint. Scumbling and scraping unite in the creation of traditional images. Thirty plus years of experimentation and experience provide Jurney with a level of expertise that allows him to successfully combine dry brush, impasto, and glazing techniques seemingly effortlessly. One immediately recalls paintings from the French and American Barbizon schools. He captures the glimmer of light shimmering through leaves dancing in the breeze, reminiscent of Corot. Jurney allows his burnt umber and ultramarine underpainting to come through his subsequent layers of paint, grounding the imagery, and giving his scenes a firm sense of place. He then intuitively knows just the right spot to lay a stroke of lively orange, scumble a highlight across the water’s surface, or dabble in brilliant greens. His paintings show the effect of his many years of living and painting in the countryside of southwest France, the Hudson River Valley, the Berkshires, Virginia, Great Britain and presently the North Shore of Massachusetts.
The Descent to the Lake 24” x 30” oil on canvas
“Often a painting is a conversation between disparate shapes and forms, some retiring, some aggressive, all informed--here brilliant, there disguised---in a carefully-conceived dance of light. In the end, all of these considerations are placed in service of a subject. This may be a celebration of a place, perhaps, or an investigation of an evanescent mood. It may be the painter’s recollection of a particular locale or an invitation to the viewer to remember a long-forgotten summer afternoon. The subject is the well-earned prize at the bottom of the box. For the viewer who has both the time and inclination to really look, one hopes to afford, by way of a painted surface wrought of subtleties, the opportunity to explore at leisure the wonder of the world in which we live.” - Donald Jurney
Michael Keane (American, b. 1948) Keane’s images adorn thousands of homes throughout New England in the form of his very popular giclees and prints, however, there are few art collectors who are fortunate enough to own a Michael Keane original. Keane is a lifelong artist who started painting when he was just a child, the first picture he drew was of a boat at age 4. While growing up, he filled his grandmother’s home with the ship models that he made and was given extensive instruction in both oil painting and pastels. After eight years of study with his first painting instructor, he came under the tutelage of Marshall W. Joyce, a marine painter of some renown. During this time Keane was concurrently studying portrait and figure painting with a well-known New York portrait artist grounded in classical oil painting. His influence on Keane opened up whole new dimensions for Keane’s marine painting as it became filled with luminosity and mood. His work grew so much, that his teacher asked him to become a partner and share studio space in a waterfront loft. During this time period, he also enrolled in university, and majored in visual design. To support himself during his many years of training, Keane engaged in a number of different occupations, working initially as a boat builder at Boston Whaler. Later, he developed an interest in cars and became an expert mechanic. After playing in the world of racing cars, he turned his attention back to shipbuilding and spent almost seven years as a Marine Quality Assurance Inspector for General Dynamics. Throughout this time, Keane continued to paint. Keane approaches his art on one level in a workmanlike manner, and on another level with the highest artistic ideals in mind. To him, each painting should be special and elegant. His technical and engineering skills, coupled with his extensive fine arts background, make him uniquely qualified as a fine marine artist in the American tradition.
Rainbow Run 10” x 30” oil on canvas
Gregg Kreutz (American, b. 1947) An award winning painter and author of the classic artist’s guide Problem Solving for Oil Painters, Gregg Kreutz has been drawing and painting all his life. After graduating from NYU, he pursued his training as a painter in earnest, attending the Art Students League of New York on a merit scholarship. He studied with Frank Mason, Robert Beverly Hale, and David A. Leffel. Kreutz has won numerous awards including the Frank C. Wright Award; the Hudson Valley Art Association Award; the Medal of Merit (first prize in oils), Knickerbocker Artists; the Council of American Artists Award, Salmagundi Club; the Grumbacher Award, Knickerbocker Artists; and the Merit Award at the 2005 National Portrait Society of America. He teaches painting and drawing at the Art Students League in New York City, The Fechin Institute in New Mexico, The Scottsdale Artists School, The California Art Institute, and other workshops throughout the country.
Restaurant 22” x 26” oil on linen
“For me, painting is an opportunity to learn what is meaningful. Each picture is a visual separation of the highly significant from the less significant. Painting is really a window into the essential. Painters are fortunate in that they can convey large ideas with very modest means. And realistic painting is an especially rewarding endeavor, to actively go after it means to learn what makes art, and what the external world really looks like, and how the two can be fused.” - from Problem Solving for Oil Painters “The goal with this painting was to capture the late night energy of a favorite restaurant of mine. To fully simulate that excitement, I heated up the foreground color and brightened the value so as to intensify a visual movement from dynamic near to a more subdued far, letting the pictures on the back wall lead the eye to the left out of the canvas. Movement was what I was hoping most to achieve here. The feeling of being pulled into an inviting space.” - Gregg Kreutz
Michael Lynch (American, b. 1950) Michael Lynch was born in Denver, CO in 1950. He showed an interest in the arts at an early age and, through a move to Chicago in the mid 1960s, was able to experience the great variety of work at the Chicago Art Institute. He was particularly taken by the work of the American Impressionists and began a serious study of traditional painting. After receiving his college degree in 1972, Lynch traveled extensively throughout the US and abroad, spending countless days in museums, galleries, and artists’ studios. Returning to Colorado in 1976, Lynch became acquainted with a group of serious painters and sculptors, built his first studio, and launched his full-time painting career. Lynch paints nearly all of his smaller pieces from life and prefers to use these as reference (rather than photographs) for his large studio paintings. He has taught countless outdoor painting classes in New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and California and has lectured extensively on the practice of plein air painting. Michael Lynch’s subject matter includes portraits, figures, still life, and cityscape as well as landscape and marine. He has painted throughout the Southwest, Pacific Coast, New England, and Mexico. He has also worked in Italy and the Netherlands, and has spent a great deal of time in the British Isles where he was made a member of the Chelsea Arts Club in London in 1982. Michael Lynch’s work can be found in many private and corporate collections throughout the US, Europe, and Japan. A number of his pieces were also acquired by the US Ambassador to the Netherlands for his residence in The Hague.
Moonrise on the Moors, Nantucket 20” x 30” oil on canvas
John Neville (American, b. 1952) Neville was born and raised in a fishing village on the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia. His family, like almost everyone there, were boat builders and fishermen. He grew up hearing the tales of deep sea adventure, sailors’ rivalries, and legendary catches. Like everyone else in Halls Harbour, he grew to understand that there are three primary elements in that world: community, hard work, and the sea. Since childhood, John Neville has been compelled to visually record it all. After studying printmaking and photography at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and earning a BFA from the Centre Gravure de Contemporaine in Geneva, Switzerland, Neville returned home and set up his studio.
Chris and Pollock 36” x 60” oil on canvas
He continues to capture the seafaring community that has barely changed in generations. His paintings follow the stylistic interpretations of his etchings, which made up the first half of his career. Simplified forms and space force the content to the forefront. His narratives are simultaneously archetypal and deeply personal. By eliminating unnecessary details and flattening space, the paintings take on a folk or primitive feel that elevates his scenes to a universal level. Often capitalizing on the use of pattern Neville conveys the workmanlike tasks that happen day after day, generation after generation, as, in this painting, fishermen haul in their catch of uniform fish and row through an endless repetition of waves. Neville also paints scenes of solitary fishermen going up against the elements, as well as fishermen working together as a unit and as a community, one that his family has been a part of for six generations.
TM Nicholas (American, b. 1963) T.M. Nicholas has been immersed in the art culture of Cape Ann since birth. He has studied with many of the area’s most renowned painters, including his father Tom Nicholas, a National Academician. This peninsula 30 miles north of Boston has one of the richest artistic histories in America. T.M. Nicholas is considered the finest painter of his generation representing the Cape Ann School and its 150 year tradition, stretching from Fitz Henry Lane, to Winslow Homer, to Charles Gruppe and now to T.M. Nicholas. Following this continuum, his painterly style captures New England in magnificent color and rich textures. In many ways, he has great expectations to live up to, following his father, and carrying on the Cape Ann tradition; however, he doesn’t seem overly concerned with any of it. In this lies the key to his success. Nicholas paints because he loves the process, he loves the exploration, the challenge and the discovery that come with painting en plein air, responding to nature and light. His humility and passion for painting are as important to his success as his artistic roots and his immersion in a historical hot-bed of American painting. There are important ideas that he derives from Cape Ann’s rich artistic history. He seems to favor certain North Shore artists for their intentions and ideas as much as for their paintings. For instance, a favorite of his is Aldro Hibbard who painted outdoors in the most rugged conditions, famously painting snow scenes at the expense of his own health. Nicholas admires the commitment to plein air painting, and Hibbard’s relentless exploration of how to paint white. He also notes Walter Palmer for his studies of snow and its endless possibilities for color, something Nicholas passionately explores. T.M. Nicholas does not seek to stand on the shoulders of giants that came before him, nor does he feel burdened by a responsibility to carry on the rich history they have made. He has freed himself from his history, though it is undeniably in his blood. By being his own artist he is a better artist, and in so doing he is moving the Cape Ann tradition forward.
Along the Valley Road 24” x 30” oil on canvas
Anne Packard (American, b. 1933) Anne Packard brings to her work instinct and skill drawn from a deep family well of American and European painters. A third generation Provincetown painter, she is a bona fide Cape Cod artist. Her grandfather, Max Bohm, was a leading turn of the century impressionist painter, who in 1916 came to Provincetown, MA with many European and American artists. Her grandmother, great-aunt, uncle and mother were also respected painters. The painting tradition runs strong in her family and continues with her children. Born and raised in Hyde Park, NJ, Anne Packard spent summers as a child in Provincetown. She moved there permanently in 1977 with her five children. A self-taught artist, initially her art was worked on wood panels and weathered shingles, sold to passing tourists. When she comitted to life as an artist, she took up study with Phil Malcoat, and attended Bard College. Her work has seen a tremendous evolution to the minimalist seascapes that have become iconic.
Waiting for Tide 36” x 60” oil on canvas
Her studio is perched over the water on Provincetown’s harbor, where she has been able to study the horizon’s ever changing aesthetics. Her deft handling of paint results in complex layers of undulating tonalities that elevate her works to a spiritual plane. These transcendent oil paintings offer the viewer a place for meditative experience. By way of her willingness to abandon detailed representation, the experience of viewing her paintings is exactly that of standing at the water’s edge and staring out to where the ocean meets the sky. “My paintings have nothing to do with Nature. It’s something to do with forever going...the space behind the sky...the space behind the shadow. It’s an inner world of emotion and yearning. I yearn to express solitude.” - Anne Packard
Anthony Panzera (American, b. 1941) A professor of anatomical drawing at Manhattan’s Hunter College, Anthony Panzera has been teaching and studying the human form and exhibiting his works worldwide for over 40 years. Most recently, an exhibition of 65 drawings by Panzera examined the scientific understanding of human anatomy and proportions as developed in Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks. His work has been influenced by his experiences in two very different places: Florence and Nantucket. A full-year sabbatical in 1975 in Florence had a powerful impact on him through study of the figure and the works of the great Italian masters. In 1977 Panzera discovered Nantucket and was captivated by the island’s serene simplicity and began painting en plein air landscapes. These two divergent interests have made up the bulk of Panzera’s work ever since. “In this new series of paintings I have attempted to deconstruct the elements of these trappings and categorize them thematically. (This painting) is focused on aspects of the artist’s world. It creates a glimpse into the artist’s studio and reveals the things which inspire and motivate him. The objects, arranged haphazardly, begin with a brilliantly carved Greek 4th century BC relief of the young horseman; next to it, a group of bottles hold the elements, which when mixed together create the contents of the black bottle which holds Bouguereau’s medium; and to the right of that, a marbleized Sennelier portfolio contains contemporary drawings. “From the ancient Greek relief, to the 19th century academic painter’s precious formula, to a portfolio of 20th century drawings, the passage of time runs along a diagonal line created by the artist’s maul stick, directing our vision toward, and ending at, the skull.” - Anthony Panzera Memento mori (Latin; “remember your mortality”) is a theme in the arts dealing with the passage of time and human transience. These paintings serve to remind us that no matter how thoroughly we surround ourselves with the trappings of life, in the end, we all meet the same inevitable fate.
Memento Mori IV, Bouguereau’s Medium 20” x 30” oil on canvas
Scott Prior (American, b. 1949) Scott Prior lives and works in Northampton, MA, where he has resided since earning a BFA from the University of Massachusetts in 1971. He has artwork in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the DeCordova Museum, the Danforth Museum, the Rose Art Museum and other major public and private collections. In 2001 he had a mid-career retrospective at the DeCordova Museum. “The light in his paintings has an expressive quality that is rarely seen in photorealistic works. ... (Prior) goes beyond mere hyperrealist bravura and concentrates instead on crafting visual poetry. His enamel smooth surface of his oil on panels erases the hand of the artist and focuses instead on the artist’s eye. The many visual delights, especially his quasi-surreal luminosity of the paintings are more than enough to make great paintings but he goes even further; to what Scott Prior has put it, “discovering the spiritual in the everyday” that gives the artist his power to speak to us of common experience.” - Larry Groff, paintingperceptions.com
Autumn Window 34” x 50” oil on canvas
“Modern realists have too often been caught between the extremes of technical self-absorption and overt illustration. Here, objects… stand in almost reverential silence, transfixed and transfigured by a golden light. There is a spiritual presence in these works, sensual and enveloping. Not easily grasped but impossible to ignore, it floats as a question in the almost palpable air. “Scott Prior is a realist painter of prodigious talent and consummate skill. But what raises his work beyond the beauty of its presentation is this most romantic vision, a belief that love and laughter lie just beneath the surface of the mundane. He is a conjurer, stirring magic from the ordinary.” - Richard Morange, Scott Prior: New Paintings
Peter T Quidley (American, b. 1945) According to one critic, “The first thing you notice about Peter Quildey’s oil paintings is the shimmering, lustrous character of the light which seems to radiate from the inside out, as if each picture is infused with its own individual incandescence.” An evolution has occurred in Quidley’s work, taking his experiences in life and incorporating those ideals and values into his paintings. One views his paintings and sees his ability to unravel a narrative in his work. Taking the harsh realities of being a combat photographer in Vietnam and filming news in Boston, Florida, and Saudi Arabia, he has molded his own unique technique of telling a story--some of mystery, some of mischief, some of simple innocence. Whether it is a landscape, a still life, a marine piece, or two women interacting, each painting is permeated with meaning and emotion. He was born on Boston‘s Beacon Hill in 1945 and spent his college years taking drawing classes. A self-taught painter, Quidley over the past 25 years of painting has captured a timeless period, one that will remain classic through the ages. From grinding some of his own pigments to the carefully selected panel supports and gold leaf water gild frames, Quidley’s goal is to create a painting of quality, beauty, and permanence. In 1994 he had a one-man exhibition at the Cahoon Museum of American Art; he is a Copley Master, and a member of many artistic societies. His works are in private collections around the world. “Technique accounts for the surface light seen on Quidley’s panels, but his paintings also seem to glow from an internal light source, whose origins are in the man himself.” - Laurel Kornhiser, La Vie Claire, “The Story Teller Story”
Catnip 24” x 36” oil on panel
Forrest Rodts (American, b. 1960)
2 18” x 36” acrylic on panel
Forrest Rodts’ finely detailed landscapes, seascapes, still lifes and illustrations reflect his love of the ocean and the unspoiled serenity of New England’s coastline. Over the years he has developed a personal style that combines color, light and composition with meticulous draftsmanship. His intimate crafting of details make the familiar come to life in a brilliant acrylic palette. Although Rodts has painted landscapes with an eye towards capturing the realism of sunsets, stormy skies, sparkling blue oceans and white capped waves, more recently he has produced dramatic works that reflect his long standing interest in marine history and the sailing tradition. Rodts graduated from Hobart College in upstate New York in 1983 with a B.A. degree in Economics and a minor in Fine Arts. Growing up, he spent summers in Siasconset on Nantucket and in 1982 began showing his paintings with the Artist Association of Nantucket. In 1988 he had his first solo exhibition in Nantucket and he has been painting professionally ever since. Rodts has won numerous awards as a member of the Copley Society of Boston, the Artists Association of Nantucket and the Marblehead Arts Association. His work can be found in private collections throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. Rodts lives with his wife and two sons in Massachusetts. “My paintings represent my continued study of water and light combined with my love of sailing, history and the ocean. My goal is to be as realistic as possible while still producing an aesthetically pleasing painting which will draw the viewer into its mood. With 2 I have tried to make my water look more realistic. I want the viewer to feel how wet and liquid it is from how it reflects the light and the objects around it. To me, there is nothing better than the sparkle of light off the waves. I also love the way the light plays off the sail covers of these two boats with their contrasting colors and beautiful lines. They seem to jump off the blue of the water, as does the bright red buoy that adds a splash of color while also adding the perfect description of the scene.” - Forrest Rodts
Sergio Roffo (American, b. 1953) Roffo’s representations of coastal landscapes reveal a luminous, masterful feeling. As you view his art, you will discover a precise sense of value and atmospheric perspective that conveys a relaxed sense of calmness, a characteristic that defines and informs all of his works. Sergio Roffo’s captivating depictions of the New England landscape have been included in a variety of museum exhibitions and have earned him many awards, including two prestigious Grumbacher Gold Medals and the Yankee Sagendorph Award presented by Yankee Magazine. While it is not unusual for artists to spend years trying, in 1994 Roffo won--on his first attempt--the Massachusetts Duck Stamp. He holds the honor of being one of the youngest artists to be designated a ‘Copley Master’ by the Copley Society of Boston (est. 1879). An elected member of the Guild of Boston Artists, Roffo’s work is included in many private and publicly owned collections. He has also been selected for inclusion in numerous publications. The youngest of six children, Sergio was born in San Donato, Italy. His family immigrated to Boston where after high school he attended Vesper George School of Art in Boston, graduating with honors. His work is currently part of an exhibition traveling to seven museums with the American Society of Marine Artists. “My mission is trying to convey to the viewer the spirituality and sacredness of my work, indicating the harmony of nature through color and light. As artists, our creative goals will never be accomplished. We will always be students of nature, because nature does it so beautifully. We live each day passionately, others only dream of!” - Sergio Roffo
Moored at Low Tide 30” x 40” oil on canvas
Steve Smulka (American, b. 1949) Steve Smulka has garnered international recognition for his distinct approach to Contemporary Realism. His signature motif, the meticulous reproduction of oversized glass bottles, jars, and decanters, has earned him particular attention from critic J. Bower Bell, who writes, “Each work is lovingly crafted; the treatment of glass profound, mature, the skill, awesome; but it is the light that matters, the light that is somehow transformed by facility of hand and felicity of brush into a compelling icon. This mysterious alchemy of craft, vision and cunning turns paint into light and light into magic.” Smulka has a remarkable ability to manipulate space on the canvas. He playfully juxtaposes glass vessels with a variety of natural environments. By virtually transforming paint into prism and translucence into reflective refraction, he provokes a sense of one’s physical presence that exceeds simple realism. The viewer is drawn to the multitude of reflections between the bottles and the scenes outside the window, making these paintings infinitely mesmerizing. The artist also turns to the human figure, depicting enigmatic women wrapped in drapery. Space is largely undefined, creating a spell of timelessness.
Down East 36” x 52” oil on linen
Steve Smulka was born in Detroit in 1949 and studied at the University of Massachusetts and the School of Visual Arts in New York under acclaimed photorealistic painter Chuck Close. He is a two-time recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant and his work has been collected by the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Mobil Oil, and Continental Group, among others. Smulka currently has a studio outside New York City and teaches drawing and anatomy at The School of Visual Arts.
Robert Stark III (American, b. 1964) Robert Stark III implies narratives in his still lifes by composing objects in a way that has one looking for answers where there are not necessarily questions presented. Where artists would agonize for hours trying to compose a still life that would appear “natural” or happenstance, Stark confronts the tradition of still life painting and challenges the viewer with dubious arrangements. Predominantly a realist still life painter, Robert Stark III focuses on the subtle effects of light on the subject matter and settings of his paintings. He strives to pull the viewer into his paintings through the representation of minute detail, yet through his interior and exterior compositions, he intends to give the subject an atmosphere and sense of place with which to coexist and dominate. Stark draws strongly from the Dutch still life painters for technique. Through repeated applications of oil glaze the artist has developed a chiaroscuro style that gives the painting and the subject itself a strong sense of depth. Glazing permits a painter to manipulate pigments to either reflect or absorb light, producing a strong illusion of three-dimensionality. Stark invites the observer to scrutinize the painting; by portraying every detail and imperfection of the subject, he gives simple subjects personality. Stark’s compositions also remind us of early Spanish still life painters in their simplicity. He “peoples” his paintings with few objects that, in their placement, seem both random yet distinctly interrelated. Raised on Nantucket, Robert Stark left the island to attend the Taft School and Georgetown University where he majored in Chinese/Asian studies and Fine Arts. He has since returned to the island to focus on his painting. Loiterers is paradoxically direct in visual form while being riddled with contextual possibilities. The simplicity of the two organic players (avocado and stone) coupled with the implication of action make this still life undeniably contemporary. Stark’s remarkable technical proficiency enables his paintings to be deceivingly loaded with content, action, and intention.
Loiterers 8” x 10” oil on panel
Tim Thompson (British, b. 1951) Thompson’s paintings are recognizable by his personal artistic style, while being rooted in the rich history of traditional marine painting. He paints scenes spanning from modern America’s Cup races, fighting ships of Drake and Nelson’s eras, heroic rescue scenes, and all parts of maritime history. A turning point in Tim’s career came in 1982 when he met media mogul and sailing enthusiast Ted Turner at a regatta in Cowes, England and was commissioned to paint a number of his yachts. The growing popularity of his America’s Cup and classic sailing yacht scenes, coupled with Thompson’s inimitable style, has earned him worldwide recognition. He has co-authored three books, The Paintings of the America Cup, Gold Medal Rescues, and The Story of Yachting. He was the official artist of national race teams many times.
A Cape Cod Rescue 30” x 48” oil on canvas
The brave men of the Unites States Life Saving Service were the predecessors to the US Coast Guard. In the early days, each station was crewed by town volunteers, much like a volunteer fire department. Following the devastating Great Carolina Hurricane of 1854, more importance and funding was directed to lifesaving services. By 1915, when Woodrow Wilson signed the ‘Act to Create the Coast Guard’, there were more than 270 stations covering both oceanic coasts, the Gulf of Mexico and the Great Lakes. ‘America’s Storm Warriors’ as they’re sometime called, fight the elements in a rescue attempt during the mid-to-late 19th century in the North Atlantic in A Cape Cod Rescue. Thompson displays his masterful ability to use color, light, and movement to create the intense drama out at sea. The fearless crew paddle into the heart of the storm to make a rescue attempt. The furious waves beat mercilessly against both vessels, the USLSS crew risk their own lives, armed only with the strength of their own backs, fearless determination, and life vests stuffed with cork. “Color and movement are vital components in my work. It is important that I see exactly how the sails of a yacht are formed when she is rounding a mark or how the ocean appears during a storm.” - Tim Thompson
Glennray Tutor (American, b. 1950) Glennray Tutor is a photo-realist painter whose striking work consists of colorful still lifes, arranged by the artist, of collected items such as mason jars, fireworks, toys and marbles, among other things. Tutor’s images hold a deeper, personal meaning for him, portraying important metaphors and binary relationships, like that of adult and child. Tutor skillfully captures the color, light, and nostalgia of his subject matter by masterfully depicting the glass in his work. Whether mason jars filled with candy or toys, vibrant hot sauce bottles, or dazzling marbles, Tutor’s translucent vessels activate and direct dynamic colors right to the viewer, confronting them with sentiment and intimate allegory. Born in 1950, Tutor grew up in the small town of Kennett, MO, north of Memphis, where he began oil painting as a teenager. At a young age Tutor became fascinated with comic books and book jacket art, especially the work of artists such as Norman Rockwell and Joe Kubert. As a teenager he discovered the art of Dali, Ernst, and Vermeer among others. However he never saw an actual oil painting in person, other than his own, until he was aged 17 visiting The Brooks Museum of Art in Memphis. Tutor later attended the University of Mississippi in Oxford, where he received his BA and, in 1976, his MFA in painting. Tutor’s paintings have been exhibited and garnered recognition worldwide, and have been acquired by many major collectors, corporations, and museums. He has also illustrated numerous book covers for acclaimed authors. Glennray Tutor currently lives and works in Oxford, MS where he also enjoys performing and listening to music.
I Dreamed It 15” x 19.5” oil on canvas
Evan Wilson (American, b. 1953) “My love affair with textiles started when I was a young art student, with my mentor, Joseph Sheppard. His teaching was all about the ‘Old Masters’ of the 17th century. We were told to emulate artists like Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt and van Dyck, as well as many of the great Italian masters like Michelangelo and Leonardo. It was while copying portraits in the National Gallery of Art in Washington that I became fascinated with their ability to capture the metallic glint of a button, or the intricate detail in the clothes worn by royalty, as they sat for their portraits. From the very beginning of my career, I have tried to incorporate beautiful textiles of this sort whenever the opportunity arises.” - Evan Wilson Wilson remains true to his mission to bring realist painting back into the forefront of American art. Of his many awards, Wilson was recently honored with the William Bouguereau Award for Emotion, Theme and the Figure in the Art Renewal Center’s Annual International Salon. His work is in numerous museums and important collections. His Sargent-esque style displays a confidence and bravura that is the result of years of study both in this country and in Europe. Whether an interior, portrait or still life, Wilson’s rich colors and impastoed canvases combine a painter’s vivacity with the beauty of classical realism.
Girl in Blue and Persimmon 36” x 42” oil on linen
“The female figure is well documented in the history of art for a good reason: it epitomizes our standard of beauty and everything we hold precious. Girl in Blue and Persimmon is a celebration of that. I have known the model since she was a little girl. She has always had a striking appearance, with her alabaster skin and chestnut hair. In the painting, I added the blue Japanese kimono and the persimmon colored sash to contrast and complement the translucent quality of her skin. Girl in Blue and Persimmon shows an ephemeral beauty, and a moment captured in time.” - Evan Wilson
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