NEWFANE — For the month of September, the Crowell Gallery, 23 West St., hosts an exhibit of works by Nancy Calicchio. An artist reception is planned on Saturday, Sept. 11, from 4 to 6 p.m.
“Through the Seasons” is a collection of 20 paintings created during pandemic isolation. Calicchio had always painted en plein air, enjoying Vermont's native beauty through the shifting seasons and in the fleeting light.
COVID-19 changed that, forcing her to work inside her studio, where she found some unexpected insights.
“I learned to paint on larger canvases, inspired and informed by photographs I had taken which capture and represent very specific moments in time,” Calicchio wrote in her artist's statement. “I no longer had to 'chase the light' the way I would when painting outside. I allowed the image to stop time, to expand and extend it, to bring it into my isolation, where I could reimagine the moment, reflect upon it, and give voice to it.”
She began a second career in painting after years in education, teaching at the Grammar School in Putney and serving as the founding head of school at Maple Street School in Manchester. Her studio is in Westminster West in an old farmhouse she and her late husband, David, bought in 1966.
Admission to the exhibit is free. The Crowell Gallery is open during Moore Free Library operating hours: Tuesday and Thursdays, 1 to 5 p.m., Wednesdays and Fridays, noon to 6 p.m., and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.