"Hudson River of Bricks" at the Poughkeepsie Trolley Barn

HUDSON RIVER OF BRICKS
Unveiling Celebration: Friday, Sept. 7, 5–7pm
Artist's Talk: Saturday, Sept. 8, 1–2pm
489 Main Street, Poughkeepsie NY 12601
The installation is on view by appointment through October 2018
 

The Poughkeepsie Trolley Barn is pleased to present “Hudson River of Bricks,” an installation by Julia Whitney Barnes. The unveiling will take place on Friday, Sept. 7, as part of First Friday Poughkeepsie events. The work entails a scale version of the Hudson River, created from bricks made by more than 200 historic Hudson River brickyards each of which marked its bricks with a unique “stamp.” Though the work encompasses thousands of bricks in total, the artist glazed one example from each brickyard a range of greenish blue hues to represent the river's colors as it reflects a variety of skies. Each brickyard name and location is labeled in underglaze, then fired in a modern kiln, before being glazed and given a final firing. Each glazed brick is put in the geographic location along the river where its brickyard existed. The unglazed bricks show the patina of time and various clay body colors. 

New York City is one of the most iconic cities in the world and 90% of the city's plentiful brick structures (and infrastructure) were essentially created out of Hudson River mud. The installation brings attention to the rich history of bricks made in the Hudson River area, and also shows the beauty of these utilitarian objects that ceased to be produced here. Nine Poughkeepsie brickyards are included plus dozens more from the immediate area. Viewers can appreciate the work from a historical, artistic and/or local resident background. 

“The idea for the installation evolved over several years. Living in Brooklyn, I noticed almost daily that brick edifices were demolished, disassembled into piles and carted off to points unknown. My background is in public art and more intimate work including oil paintings, drawings, etchings, ceramic sculptures and combined media installations. As I was working on a series of paintings and drawings entitled "Bricks and Stones May Break," I began collecting bricks from destroyed buildings and defunct brickyards as reference images. Once I noticed the variety in 'stamps,' I started discovering bricks made from Hudson River clay. Intrigued that their source was so close to the city, I started seeking and exploring their defunct brickyards along the river. I found more than I expected - after two decades of New York City life, I followed these bricks back to their source up the Hudson and relocated to an Arts & Crafts home in Poughkeepsie." 

"The more I collected, the more interested – one might say obsessed – I became. I made painterly ceramic sculptures for almost twenty years and started experimenting with different glazes and painting techniques on the bricks. I eventually had a eureka moment that instead of pictorially painting ON the bricks, I would create imagery WITH the bricks. There are museums that contain brick collections, but as far as I've seen, no place to experience the array of bri cks brought to life in something like this installation." 

"Dozens of people contributed bricks and information to this project. Meeting with them and hearing stories about their bricks and their lives has been an important aspect of the project. I am always seeking new donations in order to expand the work. As we are living in such a politically divided time, it feels especially significant to interact with people of diverse backgrounds and political views to speak about a neutral topic. I often think about the project as the "United Hudson River of Bricks" in that it brings both people and bricks together.”  – Julia Whitney Barnes

To see more please visit: juliawhitneybarnes.com  
Instagram: instagram.com/juliawhitneybarnes  #hudsonriverofbricks
Please contact Julia to schedule a time to view the installation

Julia Whitney Barnes received her BFA from Parsons School of Design and MFA from Hunter College, both in New York, NY. Whitney Barnes has exhibited throughout the United States and abroad and her work has been featured in The New York Times, Chronogram Magazine, Brooklyn Magazine, The Village Voice, Hyperallergic, and The New York Sun. She is the recipient of fellowships from Arts Mid-Hudson, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Abbey Memorial Fund for Mural Painting/National Academy of Fine Arts, the Gowanus Public Art Initiative, Arts Mid Hudson and completed public art projects in Fjellerup, Denmark through funding from Kulturpuljen, Norddjurs Kommune, Denmark in 2013 and the NYCDOT Urban Art program in 2011.  After two decades in NYC, Julia moved up to Poughkeepsie, NY in 2015.  

This project is made possible with funds from the Decentralization Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature and administered by Arts Mid-Hudson. 

This massive installation is also made possible thanks to the dozens of people who gave me bricks and advised me on all things brick-related. A very special thank you to Roy Budnik at the Mid-Hudson Heritage Center, Andy van der Poel and Fred Rieck at BrickCollecting.com (an excellent resource that was invaluable to researching the history of bricks), Stephanie LaRose Lewison (her impressive collection is well documented here), Jean-Marc Superville Sovak for being my brick-brother and is even loaning me the brick-mobile-pickup last year, Lacey Fekishazy for providing the perfect location to initially install the work at Glen Lily, Mia Blas for assisting me in many things brick related, and my dear husband Sean Hemmerle who has spent countless hours digging through sludge and bugs to brick-hunt with me!!!!! 

If you have bricks to donate to the project, please be in touch. 

In process view of the installation August 2018. 

portrait by Sean Hemmerle

Juror for 2018 NYSCA/NYFA Artists Fellowships in Painting

It was a pleasure (and exhausting) to serve as a juror for this year's NYFA Painting Fellowships. 

To take a peak at images of the selected artists click here for Sharon Butler's coverage on Two Coats of Paint. 

NYFA has awarded $623,000 to 89 New York State artists.

The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) has announced the recipients and finalists of the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship program, which it has administered for the past 32 years with leadership support from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA). The organization has awarded a total of $623,000 to 89 artists throughout New York State in the following disciplines: Fiction, Folk/Traditional Arts, Interdisciplinary Work, Painting, and Video/Film. This year’s recipients range in age between 26 and 77. Fifteen finalists, who do not receive a cash award, but benefit from a range of other NYFA services, were also announced. A complete list of the Fellows and Finalists follows.

The NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship Program makes unrestricted cash grants of $7,000 to artists working in 15 disciplines, awarding five per year on a triennial basis. The program is highly competitive and this year’s recipients and finalists were selected by discipline-specific peer panels from an applicant pool of 3,071. Since it was launched in 1985, the program has awarded over $31 million to more than 4,500 artists.

Painting Fellows
Samira Abbassy (New York)
Maria Berrio (Kings)
Gabe Brown (Ulster)
Tom Burckhardt (New York)
Ginny Casey (Kings)
Elizabeth Colomba (New York)
Lisa Corinne Davis (Kings)
Lydia Dona (New York)
Donise English (Dutchess)
Derek Fordjour (New York)*
Clarity Haynes (Kings)
Vera Iliatova (Kings)
Julian Kreimer (Kings)
Joel Longenecker (Dutchess)
Kathryn Lynch (New York)
Sangram Majumdar (Kings)
Tracy Miller (Kings)
Patrick Neal (New York)
David Opdyke (Queens)
Paul Pagk (New York)
Luisa Rabbia (Kings)
Gretchen Scherer (Kings)
Emily Mae Smith (Kings)
Michael Stamm (Kings)
Amy Talluto (Ulster)
Leslie Wayne (New York)
Deborah Zlotsky (Albany)

Painting Finalists
Jordan Casteel (New York)
Clayton Schiff (Queens)
Don Voisine (Kings)

Painting Panelists
Julia Whitney Barnes (Dutchess)
Franklin Evans (New York)
Elliot Green (Columbia)
Sarah McCoubrey (Onondaga)
Mie Yim (Kings)    

"Olana" painting included in "The Creek Flows into the River" in Hudson

To view work from the show click here

Julia Whitney Barnes is a multidisciplinary artist whose work combines elements from the human or built environment in surreal juxtapositions with nature.  Symbolic objects, flora and the domestic spaces of her Poughkeepsie home and neighbors' homes populate Julia's current oil paintings and drawings on Mylar, in addition to imagery from past travels. Her boldly colored paintings are based on a variety of source images that are conjoined into unusual interiors and landscapes. Whitney Barnes works in the style of many Hudson River School artists who created composite paintings based on sketches from several days and locations distilled into a single image. Julia's painting based on Olana, the famed home and studio of Frederic Church near Hudson was created after many seasons of visiting the location. At first viewing, the painting appears to be one cohesive scene framed by a red and white awning, cobalt ceramic tiles and an ornately patterned floor. The painting can be read as a landscape reflected in a window with the viewer standing outside, or can be seen as a view through a window with the viewer inside of the house. Alluding to life cycles, the landscape transitions from a withered oak and threatening sky to a lush summer scene in the center and a springtime sunrise lighting a blossoming Magnolia tree. 

"Church's Olana/Domestic Bliss" 2017, ink and oil on mounted mylar, pickled maple frame with plexiglass, 33" x 43"

Recipient of the 2018 Individual Artist Commission grant from Arts Mid-Hudson

I was thrilled to be awarded a grant to help create "Hudson River of Bricks" at the Poughkeepsie Trolley Barn, Fall 2018.  

This project is made possible with funds from the Decentralization Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature and administered by Arts Mid-Hudson.

Finalist for the Poughkeepsie Gateway Mural Commission

The City of Poughkeepsie is adorned with splendid stained glass windows throughout its remarkable architecture, including in public buildings, places of worship and historic homes. My mural design encompasses an array of imagery culled from a large sampling of windows I have visited, most of which go unseen (or unnoticed) by locals and visitors. After photographing and sketching in dozens of locations throughout the city limits, I created a design for each underpass that gives the illusion of complex illuminated windows shining out from the dark space.  

Windows serve multiple purposes: to create luminous interiors, to frame a view, and to be looked at or through. Presenting Poughkeepsie in the best light, focusing on its diversity of people, places and building eras, is a central component of the design.  Late Gothic, Victorian, Craftsman and Modern styles are represented, while the imagery omits markers such as crosses and figures to avoid symbolism overtly rooted in any particular religion. The shapes are often a hybrid of many windows I encountered in my explorations. I frequently joined several windows from various locations into one image, combined parts of windows in several places together, and pulled out details of intricate imagery to become accent windows. One example of this fusion is the back wall in “JWB Underpass Mural Study 3 of 4,” which depicts the shape of the train station windows with the polychrome window squares of a historic landmarked home juxtaposed overtop.

All of the concrete surfaces of the underpasses will be painted including multiple sides of the columns, aprons and back walls. The north side of the street, closest to the train station, will contain the most intricate windows and the south side of the street will contain more of the modern window imagery.  The angled back walls will contain be comprised of the most graphic silhouettes and function as a stage-like backdrop for the other imagery. The geometric forms will also allow for easier repainting in the future if needed.

The windows also connect our city’s population as it changes over time, as different groups have inhabited these buildings over the years. For example, the circa 1833 Greek Revival style church at the corner of Vassar and Mill streets was originally a Presbyterian church (whose congregation bought the land from Matthew Vassar’s family), then a Congregational Church, then a Masonic Lodge, then a Synagogue. Since the 1950s it has been the Second Baptist Church and currently has a predominantly African American congregation. I came upon many similar situations with other historic structures throughout the city. 

_______________________________

The selection committee for the Poughkeepsie Gateway, an art intervention at the Route 9 underpass on Main Street, selected 5 finalist mural proposals from the following artists: Julia Whitney Barnes, Risa Tochigi aka Boogie, Peter Daverington, Layqa Nuna Yawar and Justus Roe.

The Poughkeepsie Gateway is a commissioned mural project that is a partnership between Poughkeepsie Alliance, Arts Mid-Hudson and O+ Poughkeepsie.

(UPDATE: BOOGIE DID A TERRIFIC JOB AT THIS SITE AND I AM DISCUSSING OTHER SUITABLE WALLS IN POUGHKEEPSIE FOR 2019/2020) 

Pleased to join the board of directors of the Mid-Hudson Heritage Center

POUGHKEEPSIE – The Mid-Hudson Heritage Center is pleased to announce the addition of 6 community members to its board of directors. Since its founding in 2011, the organization has continued to expand its arts and cultural offerings to the public. These new board members will help to develop additional creative opportunities for residents and visitors. The new members are:

Julia Whitney Barnes is an accomplished artist, muralist, and ceramicist who has been widely acclaimed for her public art installations. Julia is an adjunct professor in the arts at Marist College.

Nickesha Chung is the Environmental Outreach Organizer for Scenic Hudson, Inc. Nickesha was a Fulbright Scholar in the Kingdom of Swaziland, Africa, focusing on water supply issues and also served as a Human Relations Specialist with the US Army Reserves.

Tracy Dwyer is a designer and project manager at Ashworth Creative, where she specializes in website design and client relations. Tracy has also been a branding specialist with local and national firms.

Melanie Klein is an Associate Professor in the English and Humanities Department at Dutchess Community College. Melanie is also a published poet and a creator of kinetic art installations.

Franky Perez is a guidance counselor in the Poughkeepsie Middle School and was previously a counselor in the Poughkeepsie High School. Franky is fluently bilingual in English and Spanish.

Sarah Salem is the Development Associate with Dutchess Outreach, where she handles fundraising and program development. Sarah has been an intern with Hudson Valley Patterns for Progress and previously worked as a financial services representative for a local financial institution.

The Mid-Hudson Heritage Center is a non-profit organization, based in Poughkeepsie, dedicated to providing opportunities for community members to tell their stories through the arts and cultural projects and events. MHHC operates four venues in Poughkeepsie: the Heritage Center Gallery (317 Main Street), Art Centro (485 Main Street), PUF Studios (in the Poughkeepsie Underwear Factory at 8 N Cherry Street), and the Glebe House history center (635 Main Street).

Two person show at Art Centro November 3 – 26

ART CENTRO 485 Main Street • Poughkeepsie, NY • 845.454.4525 • artcentro.org

Jolynn Krystosek & Julia Whitney Barnes
November 3 – 26, 2017
Opening Reception: Friday, November 3, 6–8pm
Artists' Talk: Saturday, November 4, 1–3pm

Art Centro is pleased to present an exhibition of sculptures by Jolynn Krystosek along with paintings, drawings and a site-specific floor painting by Julia Whitney Barnes. This exhibition marks the first extensive showing of each artist in the Hudson Valley. Whitney Barnes moved to the city of Poughkeepsie from Brooklyn in 2015 and has known Queens-based Krystosek since they were in graduate school together at Hunter College in 2003.

Jolynn Krystosek's felt sculptures create a space that has both a shallow and infinite depth. The quality of the felt is one of absorption of light and sound and the folding creates pockets of ambiguous space.  The forms begin with an ovoid shape that she folds in upon itself. The negative shape from the off-cut of felt of these ovals is sometimes used to band the ovoid forms, weaving around and in-between.  The curved planes or edges of the felt are sometimes highlighted with paint or dusted with pastel, to accent the forms. Krystosek also makes ceramic objects that mimic found organic forms, which she pairs with the felt components.  Some of the works incorporate found objects such as a shell or seedpod directly, creating a strange fission between the found and hand made.  Other works incorporate stone slabs or blocks that the felt forms envelop or rest upon. The natural characteristics of the stone with their pitted holes and quarry marks lend a sacred tone to pieces, where they float in an ambiguity of ruin, remnant, and discard. In contrast, other felt forms rest on plinths wrapped in marbled paper that imitates the stone patterns in bright and unnatural colors. The felts works inspire a variety of aesthetic references including hoods, bonnets, or habits and are suggestive of feminine anatomy. The human scale of the work is utilized to emphasize this relationship to the body.

Julia Whitney Barnes is a multidisciplinary artist whose work combines elements from the human or built environment in surreal juxtapositions with nature.  Symbolic objects, flora and the domestic spaces of her Poughkeepsie home and neighbors' homes populate Julia's current oil paintings and drawings on Mylar, in addition to imagery from past travels. Her boldly colored paintings are based on a variety of source images that are conjoined into unusual interiors and landscapes. Whitney Barnes works in the style of many Hudson River School artists who created composite paintings based on sketches from several days and locations distilled into a single image. Julia's painting based on Olana, the famed home and studio of Frederic Church near Hudson was created after many seasons of visiting the location. At first viewing, the painting appears to be one cohesive scene framed by a red and white awning, cobalt ceramic tiles and an ornately patterned floor. The painting can be read as a landscape reflected in a window with the viewer standing outside, or can be seen as a view through a window with the viewer inside of the house. Alluding to life cycles, the landscape transitions from a withered oak and threatening sky to a lush summer scene in the center and a springtime sunrise lighting a blossoming Magnolia tree. The back gallery's site-specific floor painting was inspired by Olafur Eliasson's windows of Harpa in Reykjavik, Iceland as well as the palette of Krystosek's sculpture and her own painting installed nearby.

For additional information and inquiries please contact Julia at 917-957-3353 or juliawhitneybarnes@gmail.com. Please note that 30% of all sales will be donated to support the non-profit Mid-Hudson Heritage Center, which is dedicated to enriching our area through arts and cultural events, as well as space of interaction between the community and the arts.

Gallery open Tues 2–6pm, Wed 10am–6pm, Thu 1–6pm, Fri 12-6pm, Sat 1–6pm, Sun 1–5pm & by appointment

 BIOS:

Jolynn Krystosek received her BFA from San Francisco State University in San Francisco, California and her MFA from Hunter College in New York, NY. She has exhibited throughout the United States including solo exhibitions at Lux Art Institute, Philadelphia Art Alliance, Lucas Schoormans Gallery, and The Horticultural Society of New York. Her work has recently been exhibited at Casey Kaplan Gallery, Racine Art Museum, and the Islip Art Museum. Jolynn’s work has been featured in publications including Surface Magazine, NY Arts Magazine, San Diego Union Tribune, the North County Times, the Shepard Express, and KPBS. She lives and works in Queens, NY.  jolynnkrystosek.com  /  Instagram: jolynnkry

Julia Whitney Barnes received her BFA from Parsons School of Design and MFA from Hunter College, both in New York, NY. Whitney Barnes has exhibited throughout the United States and abroad and her work has been featured in The New York Times, Chronogram Magazine, Brooklyn Magazine, The Village Voice, Hyperallergic, and The New York Sun. She is the recipient of fellowships from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Abbey Memorial Fund for Mural Painting/National Academy of Fine Arts, the Gowanus Public Art Initiative, and completed public art projects in Fjellerup, Denmark through funding from Kulturpuljen, Norddjurs Kommune, Denmark in 2013 and the NYCDOT Urban Art program in 2011.  After two decades in NYC, Julia moved up to Poughkeepsie, NY in 2015.  juliawhitneybarnes.com  /  Instagram: juliawhitneybarnes

"Hudson River of Bricks" installation at GlenLily Grounds 2017

HUDSON RIVER OF BRICKS
GlenLily Grounds 2017
Saturday, Sept 30 & Sunday, Oct 1, 12-6pm
532 Grand Avenue, Newburgh, NY

THE INSTALLATION WILL BE ON VIEW BY APPOINTMENT IN OCTOBER

Three years into collecting bricks all along the Hudson River and New York City, my scale version of the Hudson River (formed out of historic Hudson River bricks) will at long last be on view. Handmade bricks are like fingerprints; no two are identical. The Hudson River region was the world capital of brick making in the late 19th Century and early 20th Century and fueled the city’s population boom. Hundreds of brick making facilities existed along the river from the late 1700s into the 1940s. None remain in business today.

Living in Brooklyn, it was an almost daily event that I saw brick edifices demolished, disassembled into piles that were gathered and carted off to points unknown. I started collecting bricks from destroyed buildings and defunct brickyards. After two decades in NYC, I followed these bricks back to their source along the Hudson and relocated to a 100+ year old house (with a brick foundation) in the city of Poughkeepsie. I even found a sizable stack of stamped bricks stored under my "new" home's deck. 

Of the estimated 400 brickyards that once existed along the Hudson, I currently have 180 brickyards (and hundreds of bricks) represented in my collection.  Each brick has the name or symbol of the historic brickyard stamped into the top indicating its origins. The stamps can only be seen before the bricks are assembled into structures or after the building is disassembled. "Hudson River of Bricks" forms the curves of the Hudson River (where the brickyards existed) from NYC to north of Albany. The work is created out of bricks that were originally clay dug from the river itself. I glazed one example from each brickyard with a watery blue hue and then re-firied them in a modern kiln. Each blue brick will be put in the geographic location along the sculpted river where the brickyard once stood. 

My goal is to collect an example from every Hudson Valley brickyard and I plan to eventually turn the work into a permanent public artwork in a brick-rich area along the Hudson.

To see images of the work in process visit: https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/hudsonriverofbricks/

GlenLily Grounds 2017 is an exhibition curated by Lacey Fekishazy of outdoor site-specific art, installation and sculpture. It will be spread out on the estate over 11 acres of field, hill, and wood. This year we will feature work by Joseph Ayers, Jamie Chesser, Dave Choi, Vivien Abrams Collens, Angela Conant, Tom Costa, Andy Cross, Amy Feldman, Stacy Fisher, Daniel Giordano, Beka Goedde, Kate Harding, Gabriel Hurier, Will Hutnick, Julian Armand Jimarez-Howard, Elisa Lendvay, Charlie Malgat, MaryKate Maher, Matthew Mahler, Page Ogden, Antonia Perez, Trevor Reese, Kristen Rego & Nik Jacobs, Ryan Roa, Steve Rossi, Ryan Scails, Zach Seeger, Greg Slick, Elisa Soliven, Jean-Marc Superville Sovak, Karen Tepaz, Julia Whitney Barnes, & Andrew Woolbright. Lacey is the founder and director of Sardine in Bushwick.

This massive installation is made possible thanks to the dozens of people who gave me bricks and advised me on all things brick-related. A very special thank you to Roy Budnik at the Mid-Hudson Heritage Center, Andy van der Poel and Fred Rieck at BrickCollecting.com (an excellent resource that was invaluable to researching the history of bricks), Stephanie LaRose Lewison (her impressive collection is well documented here), Jean-Marc Superville Sovak for being my brick-brother and is even loaning me the brick-mobile-pickup, Lacey Fekishazy for providing the perfect location to install this work, and my dear husband Sean Hemmerle who has spent countless hours digging through sludge and bugs to brick-hunt with me!!!!! 

If you have bricks to donate to the project, please be in touch. 

detail of Haverstraw section of "Hudson River of Bricks" on view at GlenLily Grounds at 536 Grand Avenue, Newburgh, NY through the end of October. 

hand drawn map includes brickyard locations along the Hudson River

"Gilded Phytophilic Bats" on view in Confabulations of Millennia

Confabulations of Millennia
Institute of Contemporary Art

On view from October 6 – December 8, 2017
Exhibition Reception: Friday, October 6, 2017, 5:00–8:00pm

Curated by artist Richard Saja, Confabulations of Millennia brings together the works of 17 contemporary artists who take direct inspiration from the 18th and 19th centuries. Using established styles, techniques and objects perfected in the the 18th and 19th centuries, the 19 artists assembled deploy history as a springboard in order to speak to the intricacies and inconsistencies of modern life be they social, political or aesthetic.

Artists include: Elise Ansel, Martha Arquero, John Brauer, Joey Chiarello, Emily Diaz Norton, Douglas Goldberg, Jeremy Hatch, Beth Katleman, Ryan Wilson Kelly, Melora Kuhn, Livia Marin, Oscar Sancho Nin, John O’Reilly, Erin M. Riley, Richard Saja, Anthony Sonnenberg, Ryan Swanson, Vadis Turner, Julia Whitney Barnes

The ICA at Maine College of Art is free and open to the public. Wednesday–Sunday 11:00am–5:00pm, Thursday 11:00am–7:00pm, and First Fridays 11:00am–8:00pm.

Institute of Contemporary Art, 522 Congress Street, Portland, Maine

"Gilded Phytophilic Bats" 208/2017, dimensions variable, stoneware, glaze, gold luster, wire

"Super Natural" exhibition featured in The Poughkeepsie Journal

Artists use nature to explore their visions in 'Super Natural'

Linda Marston-Reid, For the Poughkeepsie Journal
Published July 26, 2017

For hundreds of years, nature has inspired and moved artists to create.

Thomas Cole, regarded as the founding father of the Hudson River School of Art, once said this about nature: “How I have walked … day after day, and all alone, to see if there was not something among the old things which was new!”

“Pairs White Rhizomes," by Charles Geiger. (Photo: Courtesy photo)

For the six artists exhibiting in the "Super Natural" exhibit at Matteawan Gallery, they have used nature as a jumping-off point to explore their personal vision with drawings, paintings and prints, bringing a fresh viewpoint to paintings inspired by nature.

“May Day/Domestic Bliss,” by Julia Whitney Barnes. (Photo: Courtesy photo)

Julia Whitney Barnes creates work with startling colors and compositions created from composite sketches of nature studies. This method may be the traditional way the Hudson River painters created their work, but Whitney Barnes brings surprising combinations together to create compositions that may symbolize more than beauty in nature. For instance, the painting “May Day/Domestic Bliss” incorporates a stunning pink sky with clouds behind a lovely vase of cut flowers. The vase sits on a slice of log; perhaps a symbol of the trees in nature consumed for the wood utilized in the homes that are the framework of domesticity. A plaid tablecloth creates a horizon of the human-made meeting nature.

Matt Frieburghaus / "Bay," is part of the "Super Natural" exhibit in Beacon. (Photo: Courtesy photo)

Matt Frieburghaus approaches nature initially through capturing the scene with a photograph, which he then abstracts digitally using repetition of pixels in horizontal striations, creating minimalist landscapes. While Frieburghaus takes the minimal approach, Charles Geiger takes pieces from nature and creates flourishing depictions of rhizomes, leaves and botanicals in his paintings. Approaching “Pairs White Rhizomes,” viewers will feel they are looking through a lush growth of plant life, but looking at each painted image closely, many are not identifiable. Geiger calls these works “Quasibotanics,” depictions of nature and the good that derives from being surrounded by its healing properties.

Eleanor Sabin’s “Bushwhacker," on view in "Super Natural." (Photo: Courtesy photo)

At first glance, Eleanor Sabin’s “Bushwhacker” is a large piece depicting a forest in black and white. Looking closer, viewers can see cut tree trunks in the foreground of the painting. Abstract lines intersect the trees, almost as if they are laser measurements of the spaces created by chopping out the forest. Sabin’s artist statement provides her thoughts on this work: “… I choose to depict scenes in which nature has been purposefully arranged and controlled — whether by my digital manipulation of reference photos or the portrayal of landscapes physically altered by others.”

"Fly" by Cecilia Whittaker-Doe. (Photo: Courtesy photo)

Cecilia Whittaker-Doe selects components from observing nature and then adds and subtracts images creating abstracted multilayered compositions. Viewers could imagine they are looking at a meandering stream in “Fly,” with river rocks, shore and sky all visible from an angular perspective. Gabe Brown takes a similar approach of selecting beauty from nature. In “Ash Grove,” a sheaf of delicate leaves is painted on an abstract layered background. Brown utilizes touches of hard-edge abstract designs as a foil against the recognizable forms from nature, ultimately creating a universe where these colors and designs live peacefully together.

Linda Marston-Reid is the president of Arts Mid-Hudson. The column appears every other week in Enjoy! Contact her at 845-454-3222 or lmr@artsmidhudson.org

If you go

"Super Natural" is on exhibit through Aug. 21 at Matteawan Gallery, 436 Main St., Beacon. Gallery hours are noon-5 p.m., Friday-Monday, and by appointment; 845-440-7901; info@matteawan.com; visit http://www.matteawan.com/