Alpers Fine Art

Light and ‘the spirit of place’

“Marsh River Reflections” (oil on braced panel), by Janis Sanders, at Alpers Fine Art, Rockport, Mass.

Mr. Sanders’s Web site says:

“Janis Sanders is an accomplished oil painter, who has won awards for his unique painting style. His work is done with a palette knife, often en plein air. He melds elements of American Realism with Modernism/Impressionism for a dramatically contemporary visual result. He works to convey light glancing on a surface to communicate the spirit of place of each singular American setting. He paints muscularly, enthusiastically, vigorously outdoors throughout the year, from the rugged coast of Maine to the verdant marshes of the Massachusetts North Shore, to the quiet sand dunes of the Outer Cape. Janis is represented in galleries throughout New England as well as Sante Fe.’’

For last time until spring?

“Path through the Dunes” (oil on canvas), by Vermont-based artist, writer and farmer Greg Bernhardt, at Alpers Fine Art, Andover, Mass.

His artist says:

“I am a painter living in central Vermont on a farm that my wife, Hannah Sessions, and I began 20 years ago. With animal husbandry and producing award winning cheeses as the reason why we live where we do, painting and writing has been the method by which we understand what we do here.

Blue Ledge Farm affords us an intimate look at the relationship between people and animals, and an appreciation of the land as we spend the vast amount of our time on this plot of earth and have come to know it as deeply as we could anything.

Since having majored in Studio Art and Creative Writing at Bates College (in Maine) in the late ’90s, and having lived abroad studying the Italian language, Renaissance Art, and Italian Literature in Florence, Italy 1997-1998, I have aimed to merge the central themes of my life and found in the end that all these focal points rely on one another, the farm and its inhabitants, the artisanal cheese craft, and the creative acts of writing and painting about these subject matters.’’

But the days grow short

“Summer” (oil on panel” by Philip Koch, at Alpers Fine Art, Andover, Mass.

The gallery reports:

“Philip Koch is well known for his colorful, panoramic landscapes. Less known is that he was originally an abstract artist. A pivotal event for him was seeing the work of Edward Hopper (1882-1967) It inspired him early in his career toward realism.

‘‘Koch has been given unprecedented access to Hopper’s studio on
Cape Cod, enjoying 19 residencies there since 1983, an honor granted
to no other living American artist.

‘‘He is an emeritus professor at the Maryland Institute College of Art.
Koch’s grandfather was the inventor of the original Kodachrome color-
film process. Mr. Koch is also the great-grandson of John Wallace, the Scottish landscape painter.’’

‘Like a hummable melody’

“Sky on Fire,’’ by Sue Charles, at Alpers Fine Art, Andover, Mass.

Ms. Charles is based in Amesbury, Mass., on the Merrimack River. Her artist bio says:

“The northeast coast of the Atlantic is my subject…. Paintings exist in many dimensions;They depict three dimensions of light and space with two dimensions of color, they express the fourth dimension of time in their marks and they reveal metaphysical dimensions of thought and emotion. Finding the intersection between these ways of perceiving is my goal. I work to express the long lines of landscape space, light and air connecting everything and the quiet profundity of nature. A good painting contains only the essentials and it stays with you like a hummable melody. I aim for that. www.suecharlesstudio.com.’’

View northeast from Powwow Hill, in Amesbury

Before the water rose higher

“What Was” (oil on canvas), by Cotuit, Mass-based Julie Gifford, at Alpers Fine Art, Andover, Mass. She writes:

“I’m interested in celebrating the spirit of land, sea and sky and the resilience of the creatures who inhabit it.  When painting, I’m working on an internal script…a bit of prose which reveals itself through marks on canvas – a personal conversation that comes from within and becomes clear only upon completion.’’

Cahoon Museum of American Art, in Cotuit

Marsh magic

“Behind Little Pamet (Truro)” (Outer Cape Cod),  (oil on panel), by Cammie Watson, at Alpers Fine Art, Andover, Mass.  The Little Pamet River is a 1.5-mile-long stream that river arises in wetlands, flows west for about a mile, and drains …

“Behind Little Pamet (Truro)” (Outer Cape Cod), (oil on panel), by Cammie Watson, at Alpers Fine Art, Andover, Mass. The Little Pamet River is a 1.5-mile-long stream that river arises in wetlands, flows west for about a mile, and drains into Cape Cod Bay. The nearby Pamet River lies a few miles to the south. It’s named for a Native American tribe.