Summer Sky - 40 x 30

Sunflowers

“I remember when I was young, born and raised in the city but having this escape almost every summer to a cottage my family had in the Hudson Valley.  With the open spaces, the farms and barns were everywhere at that time.  I try to capture that feeling and emotion that surrounds that time of yesteryear”.   R. Ferrucci

Robert can best be described as a Contemporary American Folk Artist.  His paintings are filled with muted colors and warm earth tones, diffused images and a primitive simplicity, a contemporary style of American Folk Art.  His vision is less about details, as it is an affirmation of that sense of stability, peace and simple living we seem to yearn for.  He puts part of himself in his paintings as influenced by 45 years of formal education, a lifetime of paintings experience and experimentation. 

 He has studied at the New York city Art Student’s League and the Pan American Art School in Manhattan.  While working in the graphic art and publishing industry, he also painted for galleries and private commissions.  He later studied with Gilbert Stone, a prominent illustrator and professor at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.  His paintings have been shown in galleries both in Connecticut and New York. 

Farm to Market Road - Canvas Transfer print

Skyler River Bend - Original

Clatter Valley - Canvas Transfer print

Alyssa - Original

Tilly Strauss:  Month of Sundaes

Tilly Strauss notes that her charming series "A Month of Sundaes" required some fast painting! She considers the series, "A seductive reconstruction of time, based on daily painting and meditative investigation of an American ice cream icon." Featuring bits of painted, home made or found paper, small pencil sketches, quick gestural painting, scraps of lists and bright embroidery thread, her work is playful and joyous. Both local and national art galleries have shown her work. Strauss earned BFA degrees in both fine art and art history at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
 

 “I am obsessed with Time and the idea of finding space in the continuum. By painting everyday I am able to take a bit of Time and capture it in color. These small oil paintings are reconstructions of Time based on memory, location, and exhaustive meditation.

     
     On exhibit at the Riverwinds gallery is my third attempt at “a month of sundaes” this year. Initially, for the month of January, I sat in a local ice cream shop on Main Street and attempted to paint an ice cream sundae every day- but my painting soon encompassed images of people, main street and the melting ingredients for a perfect sundae. In March I started a large single canvas where for a period of thirty days I reworked the surface of a simple image of a banana split. Though it kept me focused on the single image, I felt my freedom to creatively digress was too constrained. In April I decided to try painting a single image of an ice cream sundae- the same image, each Sunday and Monday on 30 individual little canvasses.
    
     The sundae is an original desert created in response to a religious ban on soda deserts served on church days. For many years this popular desert substitute was only served on Sundays! Now you can get served a sundae regardless of the day of the week. The ice cream sundae is a symbol of American pastime and prosperity. A Monday sundae still feels decadent to me.

I exhibit locally and have found a successful following across the country. Two of my sewn pastoral paintings are in the Anchorage Museum of History and Art. My work has shown at the Attleboro Museum, the Berkshire Museum, the Albany Center Galleries, St John's University, and has been printed in the New York Times, the Poughkeepsie Journal, the Pulse, and the Millerton News, among others. In 2004 I was a recipient of the Dutchess County Executive Arts Award for my work with students on Amenia Historical Anniversary murals. In 2006 I was commissioned to paint cows for the Boston Cow Parade. This year I was  awarded a commission to create a giant map of Dutchess County for the Poughkeepsie NY Train Station.
                                                  - Tilly Stauss
 

Christopher Staples - Daily Musings

Christopher Staples, "Daily Musings", consists of 30 pieces of various sizes. She explains, "My work deals with perception as conveyed through object, image, gesture, juxtaposition and symbol. In these pieces I combine collage with painting, photography, and printing to convey visceral impressions, transcendent snippets of a day." The smaller pieces juxtapose to create a larger "picture" suggestive of a 30-day block of time.

Christopher Staples: Musing1, mixed media on canvas 2" x 2"

Staples has a BFA, Magna Cum Laude from Hartford Art School, University of Hartford, has won numerous awards and been in many regional shows including the Beacon Artist Union Gallery in Beacon. 

Mary Ann Glass - Daily Walkabout

Mary Ann Glass: Wild flower, scanned image on photographic paper, 4x6

Mary Ann Glass is presenting, "Daily Walkabout," a collection of objects collected during her daily walk. Using her scanner rather than her camera, Glass explores what her eye notices while moving through the larger landscape.

"As a photographer, I’m always more interested in the small details than the grand vista," she says. "This is a chronicle of my interest in the micro environment that surrounds me everyday."

Glass’s photographs have been described as spiritual and sensual, serious and elegant, and have been exhibited in places as diverse as Locust Grove, Poughkeepsie; Tallinn Estonia; Missoula, Montana; Lincoln Center in New York City; the Montauk Library in Long Island and RiverWinds Gallery.

Christine Irvin - A Month of Drinks

Christine Irvin is presenting A Month of Drinks, a 30-day investigation of an American icon.

In this series, Irvin honors the creativity glass artists and mixologists have showered on meeting a basic human need – a chalice that enables us to drink liquids.

Irvin is president of the Stamford Art Association and is a fine art and wedding photographer whose images have been featured in local and regional galleries for more than 25 years.

Linda T. Hubbard - A Month in My Garden

Linda Hubbard’s series, "A Month in My Garden," combines her two loves – photography and gardening -- by chronicling her garden from the first spring awakenings in May into June. she started on Mother's Day and watched the early spring greens turn into the vivid colors of summer. 

The series highlights the sometimes subtle, sometimes startling, always fleeting transformations that occur when spring finally breaks forth and transforms into summer.

Linda Hubbard:  Clematis, 5 x 5 photograph with watercolor enhancements

Hubbard has been listed in the Art in America Guide. She has done fine art and craft shows throughout New York, Vermont , Massachusetts, and Connecticut and has exhibited throughout the Hudson Valley region including RiverWinds Gallery. Her work is part of private collections in the United States, South America, Australia and Europe.

Virginia Donovan - Daily Sketchings

Virginia Donovan’s oil sketchings stand on their own as well as presenting ideas for larger paintings. Donovan explains, "The images are ones that excite me on multiple levels of shape, color, edge, and light. I find the process as it goes through the stages of expectation and sometimes frustration to sheer joy, to be as much a part of the art as the finished product. This process of creating constantly changes me as I move through this life..."

Virginia Donovan:  Landscape, oil, 4 x 5

Her work is currently hanging in RiverWinds Gallery and in private collections from Japan to Germany, and Arizona to Maine.

Peter Billman Retrospective

RiverWinds Gallery presents Peter Billman Retrospective, June 9 – July 9. A Hudson Valley Plein Air Painter, Peter captured the many moods, essence of place and richness of the Hudson valley and its environs. His paintings combine the style of the new Hudson River School with a contemporary appeal. This show is giclee prints of Peter’s paintings and marks the first time they will be available. Peter passed away June 14, 2006, and his wife Nancy has had fine art giclee prints made from his original paintings.

Shawangunk Ridge

Red Barn

River Sketch

His paintings are in private collections in the US and Europe. Peter’s art leaves a legacy for all of us to enjoy.  Peter was RiverWinds’ featured artist in July of 2005 celebrating their two year anniversary and in the gallery for several months. In addition to his paintings, many of us will remember the soft spoken man with the twinkle in his eye and his amazing presence.  He gave us great art, and he also taught us a great deal about living against odds.

Sandy Shore

April 14 - May 7, 2007

Artist Reception April 14  4 - 7 pm

RiverWinds Gallery, 172 Main Street in Beacon, New York, is delighted to present the vivid watercolors of Alix Travis. With broad strokes, she transforms her subjects with light, color and emotion. The opening reception for the show is April 14, 2007, (2nd Saturday) 4 - 7pm. This show will run April 14 - May 5, 2007.

You will find Alix outside, en plein air, painting those familiar subjects that we all know but have ceased to notice because we see them everyday. With her painter’s eye she is constantly looking for the shapes, angles, light effects and interesting lines that take a landscape beyond the ordinary. She develops a community of tangential spaces with a strong sense of the history of human endeavor. Alix is drawn to American vernacular architecture and landscapes that have been arranged and rearranged by man’s activity. Though people are seldom included in her paintings, signs of their labors are everywhere.

"I paint quickly, in broad strokes with only passing attention to detail. My subjects are transformed by light and the paintings are expressive, full of high key color, and emotion.  I react quickly and paint using large brushes." says Alix. She sometimes adds a few graphite lines to indicate basic shapes. Soft edges outnumber hard; paint is rarely layered and there are few special effects. The result is vivid and striking paintings that appear to be effortlessly created.

Honeysuckle and Mountain - watercolor 20 x 28

Poppies - watercolor 16 x 20

Hudson River at Kingston - watercolor  20 x 28

13th Street, Brooklyn - watercolor 16 x 20

Running Water in Mountains - watercolor 16 x 20

Farm Field through Barn Window - watercolor 20 x 28

Alix was joined by family, friends and customers at her opening.  She was even interviewed by a student for a college paper..

 "Large Format, Big Country"

Photographs by Greg Martin

March 10 - April 9, 2007

Artist Reception March 10, 4-7pm

RiverWinds Gallery, 172 Main Street in Beacon, New York, new show will be large format photographs by Greg Martin. Throughout his travels and around the Hudson Valley, Greg captures incredible vistas by using a large format camera. This type of camera is completely mechanical and has basically the same design as cameras from the 19^th century. The opening reception for the show is March 10, 2007, (2nd Saturday) 4 - 7pm. This show will run March 10 - April 9, 2007.

Growing up, Greg took his point and shoot camera with him on every vacation. Perhaps it was the scientist in him or perhaps it was the first four letters of analysis, but he found himself seemingly documenting everything and everyplace when he traveled. "If there were four mountains, six building and five rivers, I make sure I took pictures of four mountains, six building and five rivers. Vacations started to become a time to catalog rather than a time to enjoy, so, fifteen years ago, I stopped taking pictures and started to just relax during my travels." says Greg.

About six years ago, his interest in photography was rekindled. He bought a medium and then a large format camera. Despite its 19^th century age, a large format camera has a couple of advantages over a modern 35 mm or digital camera. The large size of the film (4 inch x 5 inch slides) allows for very detailed enlargements. There are lens adjustments on the camera which keep both very close and very distant objects in focus and keep buildings and trees from leaning. Although the camera is slow to use, heavy to carry, and must be used on a tripod, it does force you to slow down and take your time when composing the photograph.

Calgary Road - 20 x 28

Greg then digitally scans the slides and then prints the images using archival inks and paper and mats them using acid free archival materials. The prints are expected to last 100 years. Each photograph is part of a limit edition run. His goal was to have his prints match both what he remembers and what the camera actually records.

Now he tries to balance the enjoyment of the vacation and photography by becoming somewhat more discriminating on both what and how he photographs. "I patiently compose my photographs and wait for the best lighting and can now drive by three of those four mountains and a couple of the rivers without stopping. I even occasionally set the camera up, examine the scene before me, sigh, pack up, and leave without ever tripping the shutter."

Pyramid Lake - 20 x 28

Roundout Reservoir - 20 x 28

Mid Hudson Bridge - 20 x 28

Stony Point Red Sunset - 20 x 28

Location, Location" - Oils by Lee Haber

February 10 - March 5, 2007

Artist Reception: Saturday February 10, 4 - 7pm

RiverWinds gallery at 172 Main Street in Beacon, New York is delighted to have in Beacon noted artist Lee Haber. Well known in Manhattan where he exhibits in several galleries, Lee paints locations using colors, shapes and emotion. The paintings in this show evoke memories of a place and time along the Hudson, Manhattan, Italy, and Bermuda, but enhanced through Lee’s magical artistry.

The opening reception for the show is February 10, 2007, (2nd Saturday) 4 - 7pm. This show will run Feb. 10 - March 5, 2007.

"I think of my work as Visual Poetry." says Lee. "My goal is to make the viewer aware of the beauty in things we see every day, to freeze a moment in time. Whether in the studio or on location I endeavor to capture nature’s limitless palette of colors, shapes and moods."

I Love Paris in the Winter - oil 14 x 11 - Sold

Winter Wonderland, Sailboat Pond, Central Park - oil 11 x 14

Chapel in Chianti - oil 14 x 11

Cliffs 'n Clouds, Hastings-on-Hudson - oil 11 x 14

"Lee Haber's work looks effortless and like child's play yet with maturity that serious effort does not yield for many painters."

-Larry Seiler, author "Artlandish Concepts", painter, author and teacher...Lionia, WI.