The Arts

Visual Journey at Windham Fine Arts

On Saturday, May 24, Windham Fine Arts is pleased to present the work of two highly accomplished artists, Michael Rocco and Ralph McRae. The paintings on display are similar in their use of detail. One could almost mistake these paintings for photographs; look closely, however, and you will be astounded to discover what you are seeing is not a beautifully composed photo but a watercolor or oil painting of remarkable skill. Both artists use photography to capture and carefully compose their subjects. But the real work comes from many painstaking hours in the studio, carefully recreating what they saw through the lens onto the surface. Every shadow, blade of grass and bare twig are there to be marveled.

Ralph McRae makes his debut at Windham Fine Arts with atmospheric oil paintings that perfectly capture the fleeting light and dramatic landscape of upstate New York. McRae’s artistic background started in the realm of advertising, studying first at Pratt Institute, later at the California College of Arts and Crafts and UC—Berkeley. McRae has experimented and shown various media from photo silk-screens to video, but landscape is where his road ends. After a long career in advertising McRae started painting landscapes about ten years ago, and even though he is basically self-taught in that discipline the work has a refinement that only comes with natural talent. The goal of Ralph McRae is to depict moments of nature’s beauty honestly—a goal he has achieved.

Michael Rocco, who is known for his magnificent watercolors of rural America, will display recent paintings completed after his travels in Europe. The same precise control he shows when he paints a stone building or a weathered barn door will be evident in the pigeons of St. Mark’s and the terracotta roofs of a Portuguese village. Rocco was awarded a scholarship to the prestigious Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts while still in high school. He spent thirty five years as a commercial illustrator but still managed to have more than thirty one-man shows of his fine art, to win numerous awards, to be inducted into such groups as the American Watercolor Society and the Allied Artists of America and to author a book on watercolor technique. It is Rocco’s wish that when you see his work you know not only what something looks like but what it feels like in both a tactile and emotional sense.

Come celebrate this show and meet the artists at the opening reception on Saturday, May 24, from 5 to 7 pm. Visual Journey is on view through June 23. Windham Fine Arts is located at 5380 Main Street in Windham. Gallery hours are Friday through Monday from 11 am to 5 pm. For more information, call Windham Fine Arts at 518 734 6850 or visit their Web site at www.windhamfinearts.com.

A New Arts Venue at a Favorite West Hurley Landmark

At The Reservoir Inn, a long time favorite West Hurley dining venue, the new owners have continued the culture and the menu but there is a fresh approach to what is possible within the walls. Live music, and the first major art exhibition was launched with an opening reception for Sylvia Ruth Weinberg on Sunday, April 27. The artist is well known in the area for her rich and vibrant still life paintings. Her images have been published nationally and her work is collected internationally.

Ms. Weinberg is the former owner of Woodstock Watercolors, an art gallery in Woodstock, which brought the work of other watercolorists to the public. Wishing to devote more time to her own paintings, she closed the gallery in 2004, much to the expressed regret of many local residents who had made visiting the establishment part of their routines.

Sylvia Ruth Weinberg’s tranquil yet vibrant still-life paintings have their genesis in her close relationship to the life of flowers. Her colorful English garden has been growing and overgrowing since she started it in the early 1970s in Woodstock, NY. Moving there with her two young children and her husband, this garden was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream and was her only creative outlet.

In 1990, after having explored a number of media, the artist took up the study of watercolor. She is convinced that it is the perfect medium through which to integrate her strengths as and artist and to express the vividness and joy of her relationship with flowers.

You can see the work of Ms. Weinberg at the Reservoir Inn Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 11:30 am to 9:30 pm, and Sunday starting at 1 pm. The Inn is located at 157 Basin Road in West Hurley. For more information, call 845 331 9806. Ms. Weinberg also has 20 paintings on display at the Bank of America in Woodstock.

In Full Bloom at the Mark Gruber Gallery

Spring is really here. The anticipation of this year’s gardening enthusiasts, whether indoors or out, can be felt across the land and not more so than at the Mark Gruber Gallery. In Full Bloom, Gardens and Bouquets, a group show, will be on view through June 4, 2008.

From the quiet, serene still lifes of Paul Abrams, to Keith Gunderson’s classical bouquets, to James Cramer’s riot of colorful gated gardens, spring is in the air. Mireille Duchesne and Danielle Wexler bring their French and Flemish influences to the mix while John Varriano’s quintessential Renaissance feel imbibes the viewer with rich hues. Gayle Clark Fedigan and Marlene Wiedenbaum’s contemporary take on flowers, indoors and out, round out the pageantry of the season. These are a few of the artists regaling the season in oil paint and pastels—not your ordinary garden varieties.

The Mark Gruber Gallery is located in the New Paltz Plaza (Super Stop and Shop), in New Paltz. Gallery hours are Monday from 11 am to 5:30 pm; Tuesday through Friday from 10 am to 5:30 pm; Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm, and Sunday from 12 to 4 pm. For more information, please call 845 255 1241.

The Light Between at Chace-Randall

Celebrating their third anniversary on Main Street in Andes, Chace-Randall Gallery proudly presents The Light Between, new paintings by Jenny Nelson, from May 9 through June 22. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, May 10 from 5 to 7 pm.

Widely admired throughout the Catskill Region for her gorgeous abstract renderings of line and light, Ms. Nelson is hailed by one collector as “the belle of the ball in Woodstock.” Ms. Nelson is an artist in residence at the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, and Chace-Randall Gallery is thrilled to harbor her across county lines.

“My work is about space, light, balance and beauty,” says Nelson, owning that there is a stigma in the art world against “making beautiful paintings”—a belief that art should come from “angst and turmoil.” Ms. Nelson’s approach to painting is quite the opposite. “My studio is sacred space, where I strive to create beauty and balance, filtering out the negativity of the world and needing to produce what is good,” she says, adding that “…[m]y work is never about darkness.”

Chace-Randall Gallery is located at 49 Main Street in Andes. Summer gallery hours are Thursday through Sunday and Holiday Mondays from 11 am to 5 pm, and by appointment. For more information call 845 676 4901 or visit www.chacerandallgallery.com.

The Nature of Life at Delhi Art & Antiques Gallery

The DAA Gallery inaugurates the 2008 season with its spring exhibition, The Nature of Life.

Sandra Finkenberg is a longtime resident of Bovina Center. Once a resident of New York City, she fuses the grandeur of the city with the quiet clarity of nature.

Celia Clark’s studies of nature are wide-ranging but all connected by her clear observation, understanding and affection for her subjects.

John Hopkins brings the sensibility of portraiture to the more abstract subject of landscape. He expresses the transformation of landscape with the footprint of human activity in a subtle and sensitive portrayal of stasis and regeneration.

Laura Hussey forges delightfully whimsical figures of farm life in oil. Her realistic depictions of animals shimmer with a color and vibrancy that belie the humor of her animal portraits.

Alba Leto creates beautifully rendered paintings that look to both the nature of paint as well as the nature of life. She renders still lifes with a vibrancy and life plucked from the subject itself and transformed into a small, beautiful jewel.

Ariel Delacroix Dax is a portraitist of stunning color and light. Her paintings inhabit a world of both abstraction and realism with color as the binding factor.

The Nature of Life runs through May 14. Delhi Art & Antiques is located at 84 Main Street in Delhi. Hours are Thursday through Sunday from 11 am to 5 pm. For more information, call 607 746 2664 or visit their Web site at www.DAAgallery.com.

Recent Work by Ken Polinskie in Hudson

The Nicole Fiacco Gallery announces Griffin’s Cat and Other Stories, a solo exhibition of recent work by Ken Polinskie (American b. 1952). In this, his second solo exhibition with the gallery, Polinskie will present paintings and drawings influenced by fables and narrative. The show will include paintings created from paper pulp as well as ink and gouache drawings on artist made paper.

Polinskie’s work is highly expressive, with dreamlike compositions that are dramatic in their gesture and color. In addition to being quite beautiful and idiosyncratic, viewers will respond to Polinskie’s storytelling, which ranges from darkly comic to deeply moving. Polinskie’s work is disarming, using “low” subjects as metaphor, while asking serious questions about the nature of the human condition.

Ken Polinskie has remained wholly committed to the use of paper as a medium for nearly 30 years and is considered a master papermaker. He has made significant contributions to the field through his innovative hand papermaking techniques, including his success in capturing representational imagery in his early paper pulp paintings and progressive techniques in print and edition work using handmade paper.

Ken Polinskie is a founding board member of Dieu Donne Papermill has exhibited in New York City at Fischbach Gallery, Hirschl and Adler Modern and the Dieu Donne Papermill. Polinskie’s museum exhibitions include Southeast Museum, Brewster, NY and the Corcoran Museum, Washington, D.C. Ken Polinskie’s work was most recently reviewed in Handmade Paper Magazine (2005), and was previously reviewed in publications including The New York Times, Newsday, ARTnews, Art and Auction, Artforum and American Artist magazine.

Ken Polinskie attended the School of Visual Arts and the New School for Social Research in New York, NY. He currently resides in Claverack, NY and maintains a studio and private paper mill in Hudson, NY. In 1997 Ken Polinskie and Donald McKinney opened Kendon Antiques, 508 Warren Street, Hudson, NY, a shop specializing in 18th & 19th century furniture.

Griffin’s Cat and Other Stories is on view through May 31. The Nicole Fiacco Gallery is located at 506 Warren Street in Hudson. For more information please call the gallery at 518 828 5090 or visit www.nicolefiaccogallery.com.

At the Catskill Mountain Foundation (map)…

In the Gallery: The Japanese Aesthetic
Through May 18, 2008
Opening Reception:
Saturday, May 3, 4-6 pm
Discussion and remarks with Eric Thomsen at 5 pm
CMF Gallery
Hunter Village Square,
Main Street, Hunter
Featuring Japanese screens, paintings and works of art from the 19th and 20th centuries.
In the Gallery: In Full Bloom
May 24-June 16, 2008
Opening Reception:
Saturday, May 24, 4-6 pm
CMF Gallery
Hunter Village Square
Main Street, Hunter
Celebrating the renewal of spring: Botanical exhibition of paintings, photographs and prints by contemporary artists in all media.

Young Artists Concert I
Featuring three new graduates from Vassar College: Lidiya Yankovskaya, piano; Laura Sousa, violin; Janice Hwang, cello
Saturday May 3, 8:00 pm
Doctorow Center for the Arts
Evelyn Weisberg Hall
Main Street, Hunter
The Piano: King of Instruments Series
Concert I: Bach: Two Profiles
Saturday, May 10, 8:00 pm
Doctorow Center for the Arts
Evelyn Weisberg Hall
Main Street, Hunter
Featuring Vladimir Pleshakov and Elena Winther, pianists and William Carragan, harpsichordist. Carragan will play Bach’s Fourth Partita on the harpsichord. Pleshakov and Winther will play on the modern piano transcriptions by Liszt, Busoni, Rachmaninoff and Max Reger of Bach’s major works .

Readers & Writers Series 2008
Abigail Thomas
Saturday, May 17, 2 pm
CMF Bookstore
Hunter Village Square
Main Street, Hunter
For more information: 518 263 2050
Free Admission
Acclaimed author Abigail Thomas will read from and discuss her latest book, Thinking About Memoir: Through the Side Door. Abigail was a former book editor and book agent before she started writing for publication. Her fifth book, A Three Dog Life, was named one of the best books of 2006 by the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post. She is also the author of the novel An Actual Life; two story collections, Getting Over Tom and Herb’s Pajamas, and another memoir, Safekeeping. She teaches fiction writing in the graduate program at The New School.

Ball in the House
Saturday, May 17, 7pm
Doctorow Center for the Arts
Main Street, Hunter
The voices behind the Cool Whip commercials!—Following in the path of classic harmony groups like Boyz II Men, the Temptations and Take 6 but with a modern, urban, post-millennial twist, the five member vocal band Ball in the House brilliantly blends a wide range of influences, from classic R&B to pop, hip-hop and gospel.

American Modern Ensemble:
Food and Music
Saturday, May 24, 8pm
Doctorow Center for the Arts
Main Street, Hunter
AME is a fabulous new music group that celebrates the music of all American composers. “Food and Music” features works that have been inspired by food.

For more information on the American Modern Ensemble visit www.americanmodernensemble.org.

Theater Ten Ten:
It’s a Grand Night for Singing
Saturday, May 31, 8pm
Doctorow Center for the Arts
Main Street, Hunter
Theater Ten Ten is New York City’s longest operating Equity theater company dedicated to producing classic and contemporary plays and musicals.

Theater Ten Ten will bring its production of “It’s a Grand Night For Singing” with music by Rodgers and Hammerstein to Hunter. “A Grand Night for Singing” opened the 1994 Broadway season with flair and distinction, garnering wildly enthusiastic notices and a Tony nomination for Best Musical.

This event is funded, in part, by the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation.

Readers & Writers Series 2008
Carol White
Saturday, June 7, 2 pm
CMF Bookstore
Hunter Village Square
Main Street, Hunter
For more information: 518 263 2050
Free Admission
Carol White, editor of the new book Catskill Peak Experiences: 101 True Tales of High Adventure in the High Peaks, will give a slide presentation based on the book. For the last forty-five years, mountain climbers in the Northeast have joined the quest for membership in the Catskill 3500 Club, reserved for hikers who summit all thirty-five Catskill Mountain peaks over 3,500 feet high. Adding to the challenge, four peaks must be climbed in winter, and thirteen of the peaks are trailless. Join us for this arm-chair adventure.

Call 518 263 2063 or visit www.catskillmtn.org for more information or to make reservations.

Southern Rock at the Bardavon

The Bardavon is pleased to present Dickey Betts & Great Southern on Sunday, May 4 at 7 pm at the Bardavon in Poughkeepsie. Opening for Dickey Betts is blues singer Dana Fuchs, who was featured in the recent film Across the Universe. The performance is sponsored by NXP and O’Donnell Development.

These are the best of times for Grammy nominated, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Dickey Betts. As the co-founder of the Allman Brothers Band, he’s the man behind the band’s greatest musical triumphs: “Ramblin’ Man,” “Blue Sky,” “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed” and the Grammy Award-winning “Jessica.” His recent release, The Collectors #1, finds Betts in fantastic spirits and rich musical company as he explores such American music genres as Jazz, Western Swing, Blues, Celtic and some good ol’ Rock and Roll. Rolling Stone calls Dickey Betts “…among the greatest guitarists of all time.”

Dana Fuchs is an American singer, songwriter and actress most famous for her role as Sadie in the 2007 film Across the Universe. She moved to New York City at nineteen and began collaborating with Jon Diamond, a guitarist who had toured with Joan Osborne and W.C. Handy Award winner Debbie Davies. They formed the Dana Fuchs Band. The band was a feature act at a number of clubs, performing with the likes of John Popper, James Cotton and Taj Mahal. Her band sold out shows at The Mercury Lounge, The Stephen Talkhouse and BB King’s, sharing the bill with national acts including, Little Feat, Marianne Faithfull and Etta James. She also played the singing Janis Joplin in the Eric Nederlander production of Randall Myler’s off-Broadway musical Love, Janis. Fuchs is the writer, producer and voice of MTV’s 10 Spot and prime time program promotion.

Tickets for the performance are $39.50/adults and $34.50/Bardavon members, and are available at the Bardavon Box Office, 35 Market Street, Poughkeepsie (845 473 2072) or at TicketMaster (845 454 3388 or www.ticketmaster.com). The Bardavon is handicapped accessible and has secure and convenient parking. For further information about the Bardavon, check out www.bardavon.org.

Solas An Lae Dances the Body Electric at the Center for Performing Arts in Rhinebeck

The Center for Performing Arts at Rhinebeck is proud to present a double performance, May 2 and 3, of this season’s new, electrically-charged dance performance by Solas An Lae (Gaelic for “Light Of Day”), Dutchess County’s critically acclaimed Irish dance company.

A marvelous cast of indefatigable female dancers, reaching the top of their game, the Solas An Lae dancers perform a high energy show of cutting edge innovation, physicality and powerful stage presence. Unpredictable and imaginative, Solas An Lae’s May performance will feature three new, progressive works choreographed by Deirdre Lowry, Ellen Verdibello and Patrick Brown. Solas An Lae is at the forefront of an exciting movement, fusing tradition and the contemporary, that is revitalizing Irish dance. An added bonus to the performances features the wonderfully jubilant, high stepping antics of Solas An Lae’s Student Performance Troupe. The performance will be a truly delightful and unforgettable experience for the entire family! For more information about the exciting phenomenon that is Solas An Lae, please visit www.solasanlae.com.

Solas An Lae’s performances are May 2 and 3, Friday and Saturday at 8 pm, at The Center for Performing Arts at Rhinebeck. Tickets are $18/adults, $16/seniors and children, and are available by calling The Center’s box office at 845 876 3080. Box office hours are Tuesdays through Fridays from 11 am to 5 pm and Saturdays from 1 pm to 5 pm. The Center is located at 661 Route 308, Rhinebeck, NY. Free, on-site parking is available, and the venue is wheelchair accessible. For more information, visit www.centerforperformingarts.org.