NYAB Event - “America Seen” Exhibition

“America Seen” Exhibition

Fischbach Gallery

This event has ended.

For forty years, I have been inspired by artists who have focused on the regional American landscape in a variety of styles. Some capture a sense of place through evocative atmospheric effects and brushwork, while others convey the specific topography of identifiable locales with amazing detail. Some artists are closely identified to their favorite locales returned to over time, while others prefer fresh eyes brought on by intermittent travel. It is my pleasure to introduce to you these six outstanding American Contemporary Realist painters I have the opportunity of working with in American Seen. - Lawrence DiCarlo

GLEN HANSEN paints the cities combining the elements of man and nature with the skilled hand of a surgeon creating the sublime from the mundane. Hansen’s highly detailed renderings capture the powerful dynamic interplay of magnificent architectural elements, and the quality of light particular to each season and time of day in corners of America’s cities including New York, Dallas, and Kansas City. He combines resolute, direct observations of iconic landmarks with the juxtaposition of their dissected architectural elements in the studio. Glen Hansen is the son and grandson of master bricklayers from Long Island. The sea urchins and shells that his grandfather cemented into a walkway at Jones Beach over 60 years ago are still there today. Hansen’s maternal family was filled with carpenters and architectural craftsmen who were dedicated to these trades. “Being brought up surrounded by tools and family that was always building influenced me greatly. Working with my dad and uncle, I learned the trade. Knowing this from the inside out is important with the subject matter I paint. As I tell my students, paint what you know and what speaks to you. Building is in my blood and it’s something I know.”

JEFF VAUGHN’S paintings are derived from his photographs, which are source material for capturing a specific light and time of day. Compositionally, there is typically no focal point in the paintings, but rather an overall emphasis of shape and pattern based on the natural growth patterns found in trees, branches, and plants. These patterns are often lively and have curving, and twisted forms as well as vertically straight trees that take on a painted life of their own. These interior woodland views obscure identifiable locales to an extent, although one familiar with the flora/verdure of Colorado, Kentucky or Illinois, a few of a few places he paints, will slowly recognize them. “Quality of light is a key ingredient as I appreciate the play of natural light oftentimes in dramatic fashion. I spend time in National and State parks when making many of these photographs and these experiences carry over into the studio. In the studio, the work develops slowly with an under painting and layering of paint… I like to work with a heightened color palette, yet still remain faithful to the natural world. The play of light becomes clearer as color and contrast define the image. Through these more abstract concerns of light, color, and composition, I hope that these paintings allude to an experience of the order and quiet beauty of nature.” - Jeffrey Vaughn

CHRISTOPHER EVANS paintings primarily focus on the purely natural California landscapes surrounding him everyday. To Evans, the places he paints are precious. They are close to his home, places driven past or walked by unnoticed in the usual course of events, blending in with the neutral gray of the common place-trees invisibly growing, clouds drifting by, a river flowing gently without calling attention to itself. For Evans, each of these places holds vibrant secrets of both intimacy and grandeur which, when revealed, revives him with life sustaining energy and a peaceful awareness of being embraced and protected by the whole world. “My work in creating landscape paintings involves the art of balancing compositional elements of water to sky, sky to earth, shadow to light, and original to reflection. As a painter I seek to strike a balance between the tactility of paint on the surface of the canvas and the illusion of depth and distance. As a member of a complex technological society I struggle to balance work and play, the conflicting economic forces of art and business, and the range of emotions in personal relationships. The contemplation of pure nature and the activity of artistic expression help me to find and keep my balance.” - Christopher Evans

ALICE DALTON BROWN’S paintings celebrate life with light and its visual reflections. Light is the heart and spirit of Brown’s endeavor; light created in the course of the earth’s rotation and the passing of time. Brown is widely known for her scenes of water framed by windows with translucent curtains, as well as landscapes, architecture, and interiors one might see revealed through those windows or a door. Her work is an invitation to be free and fluid, an opening into another world - a respite from our prosaic one. Brown’s compositions have crispness of form and with themes of reminiscence, each a metaphor for fresh life. Brown’s rhythmic placements of horizontal and vertical elements combine with sharp and elegant compositions. In a recent interview when asked ‘what does light mean to you?’ Brown replied, “ I love the tensions in the play between darkness and light which provide a lively dynamic to a picture: high contrast and unexpected configurations. Light can also produce contradictory results. Sometimes it illuminates an object and sometimes it eliminates an object.” And questioned about ‘darkness’ she replied, “Night is an evocative and mysterious time in the diurnal rhythm, and visually, a whole different spectrum of value and color. “ And, asked ‘what water means to her and how her vision comes through’ Alice replied, “Water may have multiple meanings…liberating, a sign of opening up, of hopefulness; it can also represent sadness and loss. For me, it’s an instance where art contains opposites. My painting works when it has an emotional center, a strong composition, and a dream - like reality. - Alice Dalton Brown

The land formations and architecture of coastal Maine are joyfully explored in the paintings of ALEXANDRA TYNG with her characteristic interplay of light and shadow, subtlety and intensity. Tyng believes that true understanding of a subject takes place in the context of its environment. Her paintings of Maine represent a hierarchy of perspectives, from intimate views of specific locations to aerial perspectives of Maine’s convoluted coast. She stated, “To truly understand a place, I try to experience it up close and from within, then I gradually move further and further away, encompassing it within increasingly larger settings. From the air, you see the landscape open out in front of you, below you and on all sides. There’s an extraordinary sense of perspective.” Ultimately, though, there remains something intangible in the process of showing and revealing. Tyng’s landscapes not only describe what we see, but also acknowledge that which is beyond the power of physical description, beyond understanding. Her large aerial views, ground-level views with wide-angled perspectives, and small paintings focus on details of buildings, rocks, trees and water. Her brushwork is inquisitive; actively leading the eye throughout the image, yet also deliberate in defining textures and shaping forms. Light and atmosphere are rendered with specificity and are critical to animating the compositions, each plays an active role in conveying the ‘sense of place’ that is central to the work.

JEFF GOLA is a staunch devotee of the craft of egg tempera; a medium that predates oil painting and uses a raw egg yolk as a binder. Jeff combines dry pigment, egg yolk and water to make paint, which is carefully applied to a panel in multiple layers. Egg tempera is very fast drying, cannot be applied thickly, and is almost impossible to overwork. Gola’s signature is the depth and luminosity shown; a result of his temperament that enables him to be able to keep putting down more layers with precision of effect and clarity of color. Gola grew up on a farm and believes this is why he is so strongly drawn to landscapes. He has always been interested in the cycle of the seasons, but admits to loving the fall and winter best. In discussions of Jeff’s work I use the term “Unspoken Beauty.” It is that moment that does not have words to explain the present feeling when you experience in nature, peace, tranquility, simplicity, color, contrast of light, strength, vitality, roughness, age, and life + death. Nature provides this unspoken beauty that sometimes cannot be explained or defined through words. Beauty is everywhere but one must have the eyes to see it and the heart to appreciate it.