The 14 contemporary artists in “Perennial Favorites,” the new show opening May 15 at Crane Collection, present an array of landscapes, figurative works, still life paintings and bronze sculpture.
Many of the artists have been represented by the gallery for a number of years.
To open the show, artist Teri Malo from Boston will give an informal gallery talk and demonstration of her painting technique on May 15 at 3 pm. Malo is a landscape painter and poet whose artistic influences come from Dutch landscape painting, Barbizon painters and the Hudson River School, with its emphasis on clarity of brushwork and transparency of process. Her oils, which tend to be small format, are built up with many layers of transparent, loose brushwork, which are repeatedly glazed and then brought into focus with the addition of semitransparent detail.
Malo, who also teaches at the Danforth Museum of Art in Framingham, Mass., has recently begun painting along the rugged Cape Ann coast north of Boston. For the gallery demonstration, Malo will work on some six- by six-inch oil sketches relating to a coastal scene, “Meditation on Waves #1.” The sketches will be available for sale that day.
“Perennial Favorites” encompasses a wide variety of approaches in style and subject matter. In addition to Malo, the other artists represented are: Brian Becken, T.A. Charron, Mary Anna Goetz, Curt Hanson, Greg Harris, Elizabeth Leary, Alice Mongeau, Doug Rugh, Jeremiah Stermer, Don Stone, NA, John Traynor, Janine Wesselmann and Charlotte Wharton.
Harris is represented by a vertical piece that shows a young woman gathering flowers in a wicker basket. The sunlight falls across the figure, who stands amid pink, white, yellow and red blossoms, and shadows play across her face, sleeve and apron. Behind her is a tranquil river with its far bank visible in the distance. Harris has heretofore been best known for his lively figural paintings inspired by the Belle Epoch, but now is painting more contemporary subjects. The show will include new pieces.
Mongeau, from Cape Cod, has contributed several intimate summer landscapes, with glimpses of backyards filled with flowers, and sunlit water views beyond. A pensive study of early evening, called “Sundown,” depicts a moored catboat in a small cove, under a brooding sky.
Stermer, a painter of super real still lifes with a quirky, mysterious edge, is contributing two new paintings. Stermer paints with a startling clarity of focus, without visible brushstroke, yet keeps the viewer a little off balance. Always elegant in their execution, the paintings emphasize light playing off reflective surfaces.
Sculptures in bronze by Leary show a real delight in nature. Small bronzes of dogs express the essence of their kind, in their poses and expressions. Of special note are two pieces: one is a beautiful egret with its wings spread, ready to take flight from its perch in the rushes, as a tiny fish darts out from beneath its feet. The other is a 40-inch high bronze garden pitchfork, complete with its label “Made in Sheffield England,” and with its prongs stuck into the newly turned “earth” that forms its base. Perched on the piece are three little sparrows – one on the base, one on the prongs and the last on the handle, where it opens its beak in song.
The Crane Collection is on Route 16 in the center of Wellesley. For information, 781-235-1166 or .
