Sylvan Gallery: Poetry of Vision

Karen and Jack Winslow ~ Poetry of Vision (Please click on image to see artist's work in exhibition)
Jack Winslow	Karen Winslow
Press Release for Karen and Jack Winslow ~ Poetry of Vision Sylvan Gallery is presenting "Poetry of Vision," an exhibition of the work of Jack and Karen Winslow, from April 7 through May 21, 2006. The opening reception will be on Friday, April 7, from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm. This talented couple has been exhibiting their work for over three decades; and this exhibit will have over 50 works comprised of their oil paintings, watercolors, and etchings. Their subjects include realist views of the agricultural landscape of Jeffersonville and Cambridge, VT, still life, florals, and portraits. Dynamic composition, exquisite draftsmanship, and the technical ability to illuminate their paintings with light and atmosphere are apparent in every work. Since 1979, the Winslows have lived in Cambridge, VT, an area that has been attracting artists for over 100 years to record the picturesque rural scenery. Living there has given the Winslows a remarkable sense of the land and has provided them with continual inspiration. Jack Winslow travels the Vermont roads by motorcycle, his easel and paintbox strapped to the side. Cornfields, country roads, stream banks, and especially agricultural farms are among the subjects that inspire him. Painting his small works plein air, they are crisply detailed and, like the Hudson River School artist Frederick Church, are often completely finished paintings. Going back a number of times to the same site at different times of day and weather conditions, Jack gathers information to work from during the winter months when working on larger compositions in his studio. One of his most visually exciting paintings in the show, "Upper Valley Farm," depicts the quintessential rural Vermont farmscape. Measuring 30 inches x 40 inches, the scene is bathed in the glow of summer’s radiant light. The natural landscape of rolling tree covered hills is the backdrop for a farm that is striking in its monumentality. The barn and silos are sculpturally carved out of the landscape, lit by sunlight they have a majestic presence. The viewer is drawn into the painting by the exquisitely painted vegetation in the foreground, and the rhythms of the land guide the eye across and back into the canvas. Rich greens, blues, and ochres enhance the overall effect of luminosity. Jack achieves a balance between observing surface reality and distilling it to express the hidden poetry and beauty that is in the world around us and in the hand and mind of the artist. Besides highly finished plein air studies, an additional feature of the show will be a 3-panel, 2-sided screen by Jack Winslow, each side portraying a lesson from Aesop’s fables. Karen Winslow paints familiar subjects such as flowers, toys, crayons, spools, and eggs, with a verve all her own. She creates still life compositions that almost dance, one element leading the eye to the next with painterly brushwork that establishes form and structure, light and energy, and rhythm and design. Karen and Jack met in high school in New York. His first present to her was a box of watercolors, forecasting a career that was to come. She studied illustration and advertising at FIT in New York City, after which she began illustrating the covers of children’s dress patterns. Looking for something more fulfilling, she followed Jack into Frank Mason’s class at the ASL and learned the principles that make her excel at her work today. To paint a believable illusion of natural light, she always paints from life, constantly keeping the light effect in her mind and subordinate any details that distract from this end. This allows her the freedom to interpret what she sees as her work takes on the beauty and resonance of a visual poem. In "Lace with Tulips" the viewer is aware of the weight, texture, and intricacy of the lace as the eye is also drawn to the elegant simplicity of the tulips formed by the atmosphere from which they emerge. "Signs of Spring" is another floral painting full of movement and light. There is a freshness and vitality to the arrangement of double tulips, daffodils, apple blossoms, and bleeding heart. Her skillful handling of the flowers is reminiscent of the Dutch seventeenth-century florals as she combines transparencies and opacities, analyzes color harmonies, and is always focused on maintaining a progression of light unifying the whole. Among the many other remarkable paintings she has in the show are "Stylin’," a quick portrait of her daughter Priscilla in the act of applying makeup, "Bittersweet and Apples," painted with the color harmonies of autumn, and "The Artist’s Materials," a still life of the collection of the tools of the artist.

SYLVAN GALLERY

Karen and Jack Winslow ~ Poetry of Vision

Jack Winslow