Realist Art: Sherry French Gallery - Contemporary American Representational Painting and Sculpture

Flowers are treasured objects in today's society. The annual 'Flowers in February' show at the Sherry French Gallery in Chelsea , brings vivid blossoms in the form of realist art to this dark winter month. From sympathy bouquets to bridal adornments, flowers hold an important place in our society. They are fleeting exterior pleasures that many of the 'Flowers in February' contemporary realist painters have brilliantly transformed into eternal interior luxuries with their representational landscape and still life paintings. The Sherry French Gallery's 'Flowers in February' contemporary art show infuses winter's most unforgiving month with color and festivity. This year’s participating representational artists include: Kathy Anderson, Lisa Caballero, James Cramer, Ailene Fields, Randy Ford, Curtis Kelly, Janet Laird-Lagassee, Kimberly Meuse, Nancy Bea Miller, Cora Ogden, Tom Ouellette, Gilbert Riou, Jeanne Rovegno, James Whitbeck, and Mark Zunino Flowers are a wonderful means of artistic expression, and the contemporary American artists in this realist art show take advantage of the expressive qualities inherent in these blossoms of nature. Still life and landscape emerge in a vibrant display of color and form. The flowers exhibited in this years art show exemplify how viewer's emotions can be lifted at the sight of a bright bouquet or soothed at the glance of a calm outdoors scene in the morning light. Each realist artist is able to show their versatility through a variety of mediums including; oil on canvas, oil on panel, watercolor on paper, gouache on paper, pastel on paper, carved stone and acrylic on canvas. Janet Laird-Lagassee creates her flowers using extreme detail and consideration. She paints with a connection to her flowers similar to the connection they have to the earth. The flowers, although some wild, are a part of her own garden and started to grow four generations before her. The way that Janet does not show all of the flower but paints the core of them shows that she wants these to be studied and admired and have a core connection with the viewer themselves. She never picks the flowers but shows them the care and consideration that is reflected in her watercolors. Kathy Anderson has been an avid gardener for twenty-five years. As a result, she has a deep and true understanding of flowers; how to put them together and how to represent them. She hopes that her realistic paintings will allow viewers to share her profound appreciation for flowers. She also aspires to communicate that there is no end to the amount of colors one is capable of creating and this is quite evident in her art work. The color palette in her oil paintings is simply extraordinary. Buttery yellow buds creep up out of emerald green stalks. Fiery orange poppies are accented by hints of crimson red and ebony black centers. The dusty earth of her winding garden paths is sometimes interrupted by patches of overgrown foliage and eventually leads up to rich purple floral explosions. Not only is Anderson’s palette remarkably unique, but her brushstrokes are phenomenal as well. She combines the worlds of Impressionism and Realism in each of her strokes and creates a sense graceful fragility upheld by a hearty stability. When asked what her favorite flower was, Anderson quickly answers that it was the pansy. Unfortunately it is hardly as easy to determine which is her most stunning painting. Painting fragmentary moments of nature’s purity in defiance of industrial encroachments, her sensuous colors and vivid hues evoke a sense of timelessness and authenticity. Working from colored stones found from all over the world, Ailene Fields’ hand-carved flowers are rare gems of representational artwork. Fields’ use of unconventional materials in her sculptures, such as translucent orange alabaster, provides a luminous quality comparable to the light passing through the petals of a real flower. Her artwork is dictated by the stone she chooses, with some of her realist artwork utilizing various types of stones in a combination rich in artistic expression. The soft rounded edges of the stone petals spill and spiral forth in as delicate a manner as the fragile model of the live flower from which Ailene Fields works. Life emerges vivaciously in her realist sculptures as Ailene Fields expertly transfers the image from one organic material to another. This show introduces two new artists to the gallery, Kimberly Meuse and Nancy Bea Miller. Meuse’s exquisite watercolors combine the richness of fabric and ribbon, the elegance of antique china, silver and glassware with the simple beauty of lilies and tulips. Her colorful, detailed paintings are full of life and drenched in light. Nancy Bea Miller’s lovely, honest still lifes feature surprisingly pleasing juxtapositions of candies and fruits with glossy vases boasting delicate flowers. Her paintings are fresh representations of the inherent beauty found in the simple things that surround us. The power of observation becomes a key component to this years "Flowers in February" art show. Many of the representational artists paint and sculpt the flowers directly from the world around them. For a moment, we as viewers are granted a glimpse into the private mind of the artist, seeing the beauty and uniqueness that attracted the artist to the composition. Personal and cultural significance come to the forefront as this contemporary American realist art show draws out the viewers' own powers of observation and aesthetic appeal. For further information, contact Sherry French at 212 647-8867.