BRATTLEBORO — 118 Gallery welcomes painter Stephen Redmond for the month of April. His show at 118, “Sarasota Incognita,” brings together many of the paintings from Redmond's years working in Florida.
There will be an opening reception April 5, from 5:30 to 9 p.m. Otherwise, the gallery is open on Saturdays from noon to 4 p.m., and by appointment.
Redmond began to paint in 1989, at the age of 40. Within a year, he had designed and begun construction of a 32-foot houseboat-studio in his backyard, which he named Gesso. In August, he sold his house in Burlington and, in November, started a painting journey down the East Coast.
The voyage took him 2,700 miles down the Inter-coastal Waterway, across the middle of Florida, through Lake Okeechobee, and out to the Gulf Coast, where he stopped in for a time in Sarasota. To make ends meet, Redmond worked as a bartender at a small city restaurant, Greer's Osprey Bar and Grill, and later in Punta Gorda as a dock-hand, pumping out yacht holding tanks.
By 1995, Gesso had been moved south, to a small rented dock, 8 miles up the Peace River. The river presented a constantly changing jungle-like landscape, populated by alligators, gar, soft-shell turtles, catfish, and manatees.
Redmond painted these prehistoric animals, as well as the people in the places he worked. His paintings reflect internal subjects and personal visions as well.