Meet the Artist
Archive from 06/04/2021 to 09/03/2021
Meet the Artist events every Friday at 5-6 pm
Meet the Artist
Video of Guild Member
Photographer Yvette Lucas
Friday, June 4, 2021 at 5-6 pm
Zoom link:
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Meeting ID: 812 5319 8713
Password: 998958
Join us in celebrating photographer and printmaker Yvette Lucas in a Meet the Artist event and demonstration with the Guild of Berkshire Artists berkshireartists.org on 10/23/2020
The series of tree photographs began in Western Massachusetts in the Southern Berkshire region, a place of retreat and renewal for my family. It is a collection of images that has grown to include the parks, woods, and gardens of other parts of the country especially New Jersey where I live. During walks, hikes and explorations, I found that particular trees stood out to make their presence known. They interact with the observer in their surroundings not just in their grandness, but with the stories they tell, sparking our imaginations to see and feel their individuality if we give them the time.
As trees grow they are affected by the many elements they come in contact with. Just like us, their environment helps or hinders the growth and final form they take. The subsequent scars, diseases, and catastrophes that can befall each of them create a being that is different from any other tree. To the human viewer these blemishes could be considered beautiful and add to the character and “personality” of a tree as they do people. My photographs focus on the trees that tell stories, awe, or communicate with their environment in a visual and emotional way. Acknowledging the symbiotic relationship we have with them is to remember that we are part of the earth and its complicated system.
Meet the Artist
Katherine Oakes
Friday, June 11, 2021 at 5-6 pm
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Meeting ID: 812 5319 8713
Password: 998958
Making art has been part of my life since I was very young. Over the years I have developed primarily as a painter working in both oil and acrylic with a focus on abstract continuous line compositions. In the last year, while I am still creating abstract pieces I have also returned to an impressionistic style when working outdoors. Though I work primarily in oils and colored pencils I am always exploring new materials and have created sewn pieces on my sewing machine and most recently have begun experimenting with resin and am exploring what it’s like to work with transparency. No matter the medium I am most drawn to creating pieces that focus on nature and figures interacting with nature. I draw much of my inspiration by the surrounding beauty of the Berkshire Landscape, flora and fauna.
Meet the Artist
Debbie Detwiller Smith
Friday, June 18, 2021 at 5-6 pm
Zoom link:
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Meeting ID: 812 5319 8713
Password: 998958
During our COVID-19 isolationism and sheltering I have been fortunate to live in the bucolic Berkshires where I have space to move and breathe easily inside and outside. Having lived in NYC in the 1960s I attended Parsons School of Design, and moved to the Berkshires in 1972. While raising a family I have worked here in the arts, education and social services for the last 40+ years.
A recent health scare along with isolation brought on by COVID-19 has inspired me to focus on the kind of painting I have always wanted to do…essentially Abstract Expressionism. The oil paints inherited from my Dad and saved from college days have been rejuvenated and brushed, smooshed and dabbed on my older and earlier attempts at painting. I enjoy working with something that is already on the canvas, so now I rescue those controlled canvases by firing away with splashes of color complements, manipulating shapes and forms to apply some structure, though keeping things fluid to spark or ignite parts in each work. This creates either tension or vibrancy, striving for the viewer to interact and enjoy the action of light and dark, positive and negative. Image recognition doesn’t matter, evoking emotion does, but for no reason. Why? Because it just is……..I try to work with immediate feelings when creating each painting. Too much order or too much thinking gets in the way. I switch gears spontaneously. Suddenly the color or shape reminds me of another painting that was missing something……. Whoosh, there goes that color on the troublesome canvas and it starts the creative juices going again.
Most of my paintings have similar colors not only because I love them, but also because I work on numerous canvases simultaneously rather than puzzling over finishing the one being worked on at the moment. I am resourceful and do not waste any materials, so what is left at the end of a session goes onto another canvas awaiting some excitement in color shape or form.
Taking photos along the way of each stage of layers gives a view upside down, sideways. Then play with form and shape initiates balance within the whole painting.
With heart and soul I can lose myself in another world that evolves on the canvas.
It is gratifying to have my work lead viewers to recognize something, feel without saying a thing, and/or evoke some kind of memory, thought, or emotion to engage their senses.