VA: Newport News
WHERE: Peninsula Fine Arts Center
WHEN: On view through January 12, 2014.
TITLE: Nature Revealed
BRIEF ABOUT: New perspectives on nature are shown in works by Virginia artists Frederick Nichols and Jan Knipe which consists on prints and paintings.
Radford resident Jan Knipe’s landscapes explore moments in time and place. She is particularly interested in observing development, unvarnished urban landscapes and chasing what light reveals in particular locations or times of day. “In order to translate my sensate experiences before the landscape, I find myself balancing what my eye sees in a studied gaze, what my mind dictates in building a pictorial structure, and what the picture itself reveals as it unfolds,” Knipe wrote in her artist statement. “I search for a motif within the landscape that brings together both time and place.”
Nichols finds inspiration in the mountains, woods and valleys near his Barboursville home. “My method is to go into the wilderness and photograph, returning to the studio to paint. Working with the photograph allows me to capture a place, one moment in time. The photograph is the starting point of a search for a new reality. I project slides on the canvas, and paint as though I am looking through a window. I take apart the photograph, reassemble it in a painterly manner, and a new landscape evolves.” He also translates what he sees in nature through silkscreen printing, aiming not to recreate his painting, but render the image in a new and exciting medium. “I want my art to be positive and uplifting,” he said. “I want it to wake people up to the natural world around them. I want it to give them a respite from the stresses of everyday life.”
MORE DETAILS: www.pfac-va.org.