Important works by some of America’s greatest 19th- and early 20th-century painters feature during an exhibition that celebrates artists’ captivation with hunting and fishing.

Thomas Cole, Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, Alfred Jacob Miller, and Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait are just a few of the blockbuster names that feature during “Wild Spaces, Open Seasons: Hunting and Fishing in American Art,” on view now through August 27 at the Shelburne Museum in Vermont.

For centuries, artists have been fascinated with hunting and fishing. Like creative endeavors, these leisure outdoor activities allow their champions to connect with nature and exercise patience. Although artists delighted in capturing these scenes, the images do so much more than illustrate diverting pastimes. Rather, “They connect a dynamic and developing American nation to its past and its future” according to the museum.

More than 70 artworks from public and private collections are included in an exhibition that includes both painting and sculpture. “The rugged outdoor life informed the work of countless American artists,” suggests museum director Tom Denenberg, “and this exhibition is a rich exploration of an under-appreciated topic in American visual culture. It also offers viewers an opportunity to consider the human impact on and symbiosis with the natural world from a cultural and historical perspective, relevant to shifting environmental understanding.”

To learn more, visit the Shelburne Museum.

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By Vanessa Françoise Rothe

In search of great places to recommend to Fine Art Today readers, I was excited to travel last week to Montreal to inquire into the much-talked-about art scene there, and I discovered what everyone was talking about — and then some. The beautiful city is a mix of New York and Paris, but a smaller and more intimate version, with about half of the city speaking French and the other English.

My journey to Montreal started with a visit to the Beaux Arts Museum, located on the “Golden Square Mile” of downtown Montreal. Split into two parts, the museum is housed in a beautiful vintage building on one side of the street, with the other side donning a more modern façade and a tunnel (as winters are quite cold) connecting the two.

The permanent collection I found to be a delightful mix of Realism and Impressionism, alongside as a modern collection. The museum is filled with strong work, yet you can see many works in just a short visit thanks to the refined layout. One can view works from Courbet, to Monet and Fatin Latour, to Sickert to Picasso, and enjoy each piece in its own time, without feeling overwhelmed.

The rooms and the works are displayed beautifully and easy to digest, with a few traditional rooms plus a video-projection room that is a feast for the senses, projecting seascapes with sounds and images of softly moving trees for a unique art viewing experience.

Of extraordinary note is a self-portrait by Bouguereau as well as the charcoal drawing below it, granting some rare insight into this historical master. The Monet, Pissarro, and Impressionists room shows landscapes and figures that lean realist to Impressionist, tracing the history from circa 1850 to 1900 with fine examples along the way. I was met by local artist Nicolas Martin, who gave me a tour through the works and pointed out a few points on each that he felt was of note; he feels that this portrait of Bouguereau, and a large Benjamin Constant, are alone worth making the drive into the city.

In addition to the museum, there is a row of galleries specializing in a 1920s-1950s-style work just next door, as well as assorted galleries throughout the city, which is known as a popular visiting place for artists. I highly recommend the experience at the bar or restaurant of the Mount Stephen Hotel, where music, art, and painterly lighting mix well with your Perrier or champagne. The town is filled with Parisian-style wooden storefronts, fine restaurants such as LE MEAC, and numerous jazz clubs with live piano and sax that are particularly refreshing after a day in the city.

Where to stay in Montreal? The Mount Stephan or the Ritz Carlton (the first one ever built) are within easy walking distance of the Beaux Arts Museum. A delightful visit.

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Do you remember those transitional times between adolescence and adulthood? Perhaps some of those memories are fond, others not. Whether your own evolution was memorable or not, the subject is ripe for artistic interpretation, which is exactly what Kate Gridley has done here.

On view now through July 16 at the Fort Collins Museum of Art in Colorado, “Passing Through: Portraits of Emerging Adults” is a fascinating artistic investigation into youth identity in the 21st century. Featuring paintings by Kate Gridley, the series of works “mark moments in which 17 emerging adults in and around Gridley’s hometown of Middlebury, Vermont, transition to realizing their selves and claim their voices. Oil portraits of adolescents are seldom painted in our culture, which relies more heavily on the immediacy of photography and video. The artist created this series of 17 portraits to honor the transition between adolescence and adulthood. Different religious and cultural beliefs, a range of identities and orientations, experience, failures and successes as well as family structures and health issues are represented across the group. In addition to the oil portraits, this exhibition will include sound portraits of the subjects talking about where they are in their lives as well as their hopes and fears for the future.”

To learn more, visit the Fort Collins Museum of Art.

This article was featured in Fine Art Today, a weekly e-newsletter from Fine Art Connoisseur magazine. To start receiving Fine Art Today for free, click here.

A collection of new paintings by William Berra features during a significant exhibition this summer in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Find out here who the lucky host is and when the doors open.

Whether it be sunlit Italian landscapes, rustic New Mexican scenes, figures, or churches, they’re all done with a beautiful expressionistic touch by painter William Berra. Nedra Matteucci Galleries in Santa Fe, New Mexico, will soon present a robust body of new works by Berra in an exhibition opening June 24 and continuing through July 22. Titled “Inspired by Nature,” the show includes both familiar and unfamiliar subjects.

“To keep my mind and my approach fresh, I mix it up,” says Berra. “Sometimes painting figures, on other occasions landscapes, while sometimes turning to still life. If I look out to my garden, a painting of a bird on a sunflower skeleton is born. If I’m traveling, my subject lies out the window. And if my wife happens to stand in silhouette in an arched doorway, that image will inspire a composition.”

The gallery writes, “Berra’s work emphasizes light and color, harmony and spontaneity, and each piece conveys emotion through an inviting sense of ambiguity. The expressionistic mood of Berra’s work strikes each viewer differently, offering a sense of discovery and affinity. For several decades, Berra has been an exciting artist to follow. The collection of recent paintings will include an expanded range of subject matter, demonstrating Berra’s inclination to explore beyond the boundaries of his work.”

To learn more, visit Nedra Matteucci Galleries.

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Wisconsin’s only ARC-approved atelier just opened its “Student/Faculty Show” in Green Bay with some fantastic results.

The Art Garage in Green Bay, Wisconsin, is hosting tonight an opening reception for the Academy of Fine Art’s “Student/Faculty Show.” The atelier, located in Denmark, Wisconsin, is the state’s only ARC-approved academy. Among the instructors at the academy are Molly Johnson, Lori Beringer, Marcia Brice, David Carpenter, and Patrick Burke. The exhibition will run through June.

To learn more, visit the Art Garage.

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Opening soon, Gerald Peters Gallery in New York is offering a fantastic and comprehensive exhibition aimed at surveying American realism today. Who are the big names who were carefully curated into the show?

Curated by major representational painter Daniel Sprick and gallery owner Peter Marcelle, “American Realism: A Survey” is a stunning exhibition opening May 18 at Gerald Peters Gallery in New York City. The exhibition was born from the friendship between the two curators and their mutual love for realist art.

The show will feature a range of paintings, drawings, and sculpture and “explores the pluralistic nature of the realism movement,” according to the gallery. “What constitutes realism? Over time the definition has been blurred by the vast diversity of styles within realist art. Realism has remained a constant in American painting, though appearing in various guises: traditional realism, photo realism, hyper realism, magic realism, painterly realism, neo-academic realism, and many more, all fall within its ever-widening parameters.”

The gallery continues, “The exhibition will highlight the works of notable contemporary luminaries such as Jamie Wyeth, Daniel Sprick, Harvey Dinnerstein, and Steven Assael, while paying homage to past exemplars such as John Koch and Andrew Wyeth. Through varying styles, each artist presents their interpretation of reality; all use a direct visual language to convey their individual truth.”

Artists included in the show are Steven Assael, John Baeder, Bo Bartlett, Michael Bergt, Derek Buckner, Davis Cone, David Desimone, Harvey Dinnerstein, Miriam Dougenis, Jeanne Duval, Eric Fischl, Scott Fraser, Susan Grossman, Quang Ho, Michael Klein, Alan Magee, Kenton Nelson, Clio Newton, Louise Peabody, Jeffrey Ripple, Marc Sijan, Rafael Soares, Daniel Sprick, David Uhl, Michael Viera, Andrew and Jamie Wyeth, and Brenda Zlamany.

To learn more, visit Gerald Peters Gallery.

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The Couse Foundation of Taos, New Mexico, is hosting a major celebration and gala fundraiser this weekend that features this grand opening. What is it and where?

This weekend, on June 10 and 11, the Couse Foundation of Taos, New Mexico, hosts its 5th Biennial Couse-Sharp Gala. The event will begin on the 10th at the Harwood Museum of Art with a lecture by Peter Hassrick, director emeritus and senior scholar for the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. The lecture will cover the studios of Joseph Henry Sharp and is designed to highlight the grand opening of Sharp’s newly restored second studio, which will showcase a new, permanent exhibition dedicated to the artist. Although the grand opening is slated for Sunday, attendees will have much to do after Hassrick’s lecture, as a gala fundraiser at the El Monte Sagrado Resort begins at 5 p.m.

Via the Couse Foundation, “Saturday’s gala event will include a wine and hors d’oeuvres reception, a silent and live auction and a gourmet dinner with live music. The studio grand opening and exhibition, ‘Joseph Henry Sharp: The Life and Work of an American Legend,’ on Sunday will be held in the adobe studio designed and built by Sharp, and will allow a peek into his art career that will include significant works of art, personal ephemera and Native American artifacts that he collected throughout his life. Many of the artifacts on display have appeared in his paintings. The exhibit will mark the first permanent exhibition dedicated to Sharp.

“‘The Couse-Sharp Gala Weekend is a beautiful event full of fun, art and history,’ said Karina Armijo, Director of Marketing and Tourism for the Town of Taos. ‘It’s wonderful to see people come out and celebrate the rich history of art and creative thinking that Taos was built upon.’”

To learn more, visit the Couse Foundation of Taos.

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It was December 2016 when we first met Ontario painter Mary Derrick and discovered the incredible story of how a special person helped lead her to art. Now she’s attending festivals and mounting this fantastic exhibition.

On view from June 3-18, “Dreamscapes: Paintings from my mind’s eye” is a lovely solo exhibition at Kawartha Artists’ Gallery & Studio in Ontario, Canada, featuring recent works by landscape painter Mary Derrick. Derrick has a knack for landscape and, in particular, atmospheric light and moody space.

“I paint using oils as I love their flexibility and the depth that I can achieve using them,” she says, “yet still paint starkly in order to clearly impress the emotions of the piece through the use of color, texture, composition, and movement. While my paintings use representations of nature, they have really nothing to do with nature, or a specific place, and everything to do with emotions. When I start a painting, I have no preconceived idea of what it will be. I let the canvas and the emotions running through me evolve onto the canvas, each becoming its own journey of discovery for me and, hopefully, you the viewer.”

To learn more, visit Kawartha Artists’ Gallery & Studio.

This article was featured in Fine Art Today, a weekly e-newsletter from Fine Art Connoisseur magazine. To start receiving Fine Art Today for free, click here.

An incredible body of contemporary paintings that explore the universal struggle to retain memory and identity is currently gracing the walls of Booth Gallery in New York.

Visitors to New York City’s Booth Gallery will be able to view masterful multi-figural paintings by Jean-Paul Mallozzi, Adam Miller, and Lou Ros from June 3 through July 1. Titled “SOLACE,” the exhibition is a striking demonstration of how contemporary realist painters use traditional techniques to explore modern psychological and existential themes.

“Jean-Paul Mallozzi paints figures that inhabit their environment in isolation, even in groupings that denote relationships” the gallery suggests. “He depicts an emotional state that has been represented by colorfully abstracted, thick pools of saturated paint. The faces and identity of the figures have been purposefully distorted, so as not to be read in an analytic fashion, but rather poignantly felt. His figures find solace in each other, or from within.

“Adam Miller orchestrates garden themes in a Grand Manner straight out of the 16th century Baroque. In his enormous painting ‘Quebec,’ he takes on the two incredible tasks at once. One, he tells the story of a nation’s struggle for autonomy in the face of racism, class struggle, and the inevitable in-fighting that every revolution faces. And two, he takes on the mantle of History Painting, once considered the highest form of painting in the West, and which has not been attempted on a level this ambitious in decades.

“Lou Ros is a self-taught, former graffiti artist whose Expressionistic portraits and multiple figure compositions are painted in the pale colors of faded nostalgia. His bittersweet imagery conveys a sense of loss, of remembered details that evoke a memory but are not enough to bring it clearly to the forefront of consciousness. In not saying too much, he says more, leaving the unfinished narratives up to the viewer to resolve.”

To learn more, visit Booth Gallery.

This article was featured in Fine Art Today, a weekly e-newsletter from Fine Art Connoisseur magazine. To start receiving Fine Art Today for free, click here.