BRATTLEBORO — During the month of January, seven Brattleboro-West Arts members will exhibit recent work in a variety of media at the Robert H. Gibson River Garden, 157 Main St.
The art on display will include acrylic paintings, watercolors, hooked and braided wool, oil paintings, encaustics and pastels, in styles ranging from new visions of wildlife to landscapes to abstraction.
Participants include Julia Eva Bacon, Maisie Crowther, Lesley Heathcote, Ron Karpius, Kris McDermet, Walter Slowinski, and Jen Wiechers.
Bacon's oil paintings highlight a spiritual connection to the natural world by way of its animal inhabitants.
Crowther will be showing watercolors of natural scenes, including waterfalls, trees, fields, rivers, and beaches. Her watercolors reflect the different states of water - ice, snow, clouds, fog, rivers - and their relationships to the elements in the landscape.
Heathcote will exhibit pastels of birds depicted with close attention to detail, conveying their unique spirits, beauty, and intelligence.
Karpius's acrylic paintings depict scenes ranging from landscapes and seascapes to nautical and wildlife themes.
Each of McDermet's hooked and braided wool pieces has a story. For example, her piece titled Musical Chairs honors the child's game it's named for, her love of all styles of chairs, the harpsichord keyboard and the recorder. She asks, “Can you find the mistake in the keyboard?”
Slowinski will exhibit his acrylic landscape paintings, which are done plein-air.
Wiechers offers her abstract encaustic (wax) paintings from her Laughing Lizard Studio. She says this lesser-known medium offers “a very comfortable, versatile physical interface full of interweaving layers and unplanned effects that encourage a dance between intention and happenstance.”
The show will run Jan. 3 through 29. The River Garden is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday (closed Sundays).