Two local artists reveal their views of the world through form and color in a new exhibit, “Painting, Sculpture: The Art of Michelle Lougee and Bob Grignaffini,” at the Fountain Street Fine Art Gallery in Framingham.
Using bright colors and defined shapes, sculptor Lougee of Cambridge and painter Grignaffini, originally from Wellesley, intend to depict the fragile relationship between humans and nature.
An environmental sculptor and artist, Lougee creates colorful, spiritual sculptures to capture the importance of humans’ responsibility to the earth and the controversial question of nature vs. technology. Her simple, cellular forms expose the reality of the world and relay a clear message to viewers: “What are we going to do?”
“We are in a dangerous place right now,” Lougee said, “The way we live affects us in the future.”
For example, “Plume” is a tubular structure of black, interwoven plastic bags inspired by last year’s BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The bags are not tightly woven, which gives the sculpture the appearance of netting.
Grignaffini’s oil paintings reflect his views on places around the world. Using bright colors within solid forms, he captures the movement and light that make a scene come to life. He said his paintings are a “celebration of color and form” within pastoral and small town landscapes.
“Everything has spirit in it,” he said, “I try to be honest with the way I’m laying the paint down.”
Not all of his subjects are real.
Created in Grignaffini’s mind, “Pathway Through a Garden” is meant to be an interactive piece for viewers. He invites us to step into the painting with a long staircase passing through a beautiful garden of bright greens, yellows and blues.
Both artists gain inspiration from nature. Grignaffini’s paintings attempt to show a sense of movement and life in otherwise stationary objects. Lougee loves the otherworldliness of the ocean and bases many of her sculptures on deep-sea life forms.
Grignaffini’s “Old Beech Tree” reveals an ancient Italian forest, in which he uses bright colors and profound shadows to capture the movement of light among the trees. It inspired many of his other paintings displayed in the exhibit.
“Saxonville” depicts a familiar landscape along the Sudbury River. This painting is particularly special to Grignaffini because it is near his former home, and both of his children were born there. It also represents his desire to share the shapes and colors within everyday scenery.
Ocean plankton in the “Eastern Garbage Patch” off the coast of Hawaii inspired Lougee’s “Dinoflagellate.” The sculpture, created with crocheted plastic bags, looks like a vortex of life forms meant to represent the effect of toxins on sea creatures within the patch.
Lougee’s panel pieces give an organic form to inorganic substances. Ironed and fused together, the beige plastic bags give an appearance like worn parchment. Yarn-like strands of plastic bags sewn into the panels create a wall sculpture and give life to the inorganic materials.
Gallery co-founder Cheryl Clinton said she loves the combination of paintings and sculptures. The shapes, composition and palette create a rhythm between the works, which visually connects them to one another and makes an appealing display.
Lougee uses repurposed materials to create her sculptures. Her current favorites are clay and plastic bags, which she began using four years ago. She turns the bags into yarn and crochets them into shapes. The ease and portability of the pieces make it easy to work on anywhere.
Grignaffini likes to use different styles when he paints, usually beginning the process with a charcoal sketch of a scene he wants to paint. He works primarily in his studio at the Fountain Street Gallery, but also enjoys working en plein air.
2012年2月19日星期日
2012年2月16日星期四
Vail International Gallery hosts exhibit by oil painter
When people walk into Vail International Gallery in Vail, sometimes they stop mid-step to stare at one of Lu Cong's paintings, hanging on the wall.
“The eyes really grab them,” said Patrick Cassidy, gallery co-owner. “And people are also impressed by the near photographic quality of his work. Sometimes I have people ask if they are photographs, until they look close and see that it's done with a brush and oil paint. And they're even more impressed when they find out he's a self-taught artist.”
The gallery is hosting Cong's second large scale exhibit, with 11 paintings on display, through March 1; a reception with the artist will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday.
Since Cong's last exhibit at the gallery, in 2010, the Denver artist has broken into the national art scene, with exhibits in New York City and Southampton, said Marc LeVarn, who owns the gallery along with Cassidy.
The painter, whose given name is actually Cong Lu, came to the United States from Shanghai China when he was 11 years old. He began working full time as a painter while in his early 20s after moving to Denver. Naturally gifted as both a draftsman and colorist, Cong's early works were “large and sensational, though they were painted with exaggerated melodrama and pathos, his keen insight and sensitivity towards his subjects were nonetheless evident,” LeVarn said.
Between 2003 and 2007, Lu was recognized by a number of art publications as a notable emerging artist.
“Since then, Lu has developed a distinctive look that many regard as an original approach to figurative realism,” LeVarn said. “His portraits do not simply capture the physical or emotional likeness of the subject, rather they beckon to establish an authentic engagement — interaction that ensues when one comes face to face with the sensual, the inexplicable and the unsettling.”
Cong is best known for his paintings of women and his compositions often depict females looking directly out from the painting toward the viewer. While Cong's work is realistic, its also fairly stylized, Cong said. For example, the women's eyes often look bigger than they might in real life.
“It's not that I go measure, and make them big, its just something that happens,” he said during a 2010 interview. “Whenever I try too hard to make something have a formula, they end up like caricatures,” Cong said. “But I like to just look at them like I'm just painting them like they're in front of me. If I do some funky things — eyes get bigger, certain things get streamlined — I just let that happen.”
And its those details that distinguish Cong's work from that of other portrait artists.
“I do have a sensibility and style that I feel is pretty unique and other people respond to,” he said. “But it's nothing I can tell you how it happens, it's just something that comes out in my work.”
The gallery has carried Cong's work since 2006. Over the years, Cassidy has watched Cong's style evolve.
“He has more of a classical Renaissance technique now, Cassidy said. “He stopped painting on canvas because no matter how tight the weave, it didn't provide him the ability to paint the detail he wanted. It's a very Renaissance style of painting to paint on a wood panel on a very flat plane with hardly any texture. He can get extreme levels of detail.”
“The eyes really grab them,” said Patrick Cassidy, gallery co-owner. “And people are also impressed by the near photographic quality of his work. Sometimes I have people ask if they are photographs, until they look close and see that it's done with a brush and oil paint. And they're even more impressed when they find out he's a self-taught artist.”
The gallery is hosting Cong's second large scale exhibit, with 11 paintings on display, through March 1; a reception with the artist will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday.
Since Cong's last exhibit at the gallery, in 2010, the Denver artist has broken into the national art scene, with exhibits in New York City and Southampton, said Marc LeVarn, who owns the gallery along with Cassidy.
The painter, whose given name is actually Cong Lu, came to the United States from Shanghai China when he was 11 years old. He began working full time as a painter while in his early 20s after moving to Denver. Naturally gifted as both a draftsman and colorist, Cong's early works were “large and sensational, though they were painted with exaggerated melodrama and pathos, his keen insight and sensitivity towards his subjects were nonetheless evident,” LeVarn said.
Between 2003 and 2007, Lu was recognized by a number of art publications as a notable emerging artist.
“Since then, Lu has developed a distinctive look that many regard as an original approach to figurative realism,” LeVarn said. “His portraits do not simply capture the physical or emotional likeness of the subject, rather they beckon to establish an authentic engagement — interaction that ensues when one comes face to face with the sensual, the inexplicable and the unsettling.”
Cong is best known for his paintings of women and his compositions often depict females looking directly out from the painting toward the viewer. While Cong's work is realistic, its also fairly stylized, Cong said. For example, the women's eyes often look bigger than they might in real life.
“It's not that I go measure, and make them big, its just something that happens,” he said during a 2010 interview. “Whenever I try too hard to make something have a formula, they end up like caricatures,” Cong said. “But I like to just look at them like I'm just painting them like they're in front of me. If I do some funky things — eyes get bigger, certain things get streamlined — I just let that happen.”
And its those details that distinguish Cong's work from that of other portrait artists.
“I do have a sensibility and style that I feel is pretty unique and other people respond to,” he said. “But it's nothing I can tell you how it happens, it's just something that comes out in my work.”
The gallery has carried Cong's work since 2006. Over the years, Cassidy has watched Cong's style evolve.
“He has more of a classical Renaissance technique now, Cassidy said. “He stopped painting on canvas because no matter how tight the weave, it didn't provide him the ability to paint the detail he wanted. It's a very Renaissance style of painting to paint on a wood panel on a very flat plane with hardly any texture. He can get extreme levels of detail.”
2011年12月19日星期一
Columbia College art student stages exhibition at Tellers Gallery & Bar
Standing in front of her painting of barn swallows, Meridith Gray tilted her head to the right and frowned.
"It's starting to get ugly," the Columbia College art student said as she layered a grayish blue onto the painting.
"That's not right. I need orange and red for the sky instead."
Gray quickly grabbed a cloth and wiped off the blue off the canvas.
"I like it that a lot of the times I don't know what I'm doing," she said. "Spontaneity is an artist's greatest tool."
She stepped back, took a look at her work and finally nodded.
"Now, the swallows can take command."
Gray, a senior, created a group of paintings featuring barn swallows for an art class. Despite the long nights she spent on this collection, she said the effort doesn't match the demanding nebula series she worked on for more than a year.
That series is a collection of seven oil paintings based on Gray's rendering of nebula clouds from photographs. The series is being exhibited this month at Tellers Gallery & Bar, 820 E. Broadway.
A nebula is an interstellar cloud made of dust and ionized gases. Gray said her inspiration came from a general astronomy course she took at Moberly Area Community College.
"The moment that I saw the Orion Nebula picture, I knew it was something I wanted to paint," she said. "They're so big — light years across — they're really fascinating and beautiful to me."
Gray said it took a long time for her to adjust to the level of accuracy and skills she needed to paint the transience and sophistication of the nebula.
"Before this I really had no artistic direction at all," she said. "I'm trying to take it up to the professional level with this series and step out of what I'm used to doing in school that is free form."
The hardest part of the process, Gray said, was the beginning, when she needed to scale the image onto the canvas proportionally. She called it time-consuming and dull at the same time.
The fact that nebulae tend to emerge slowly at night also required her to work late to capture the haziness and depth of the clouds.
"These paintings have density and atmosphere in them," she said. "I feel like their depth is better achieved because the dim light brings out the beauty of the nebulae."
Oil painting is a process of layers that keep emerging and recessing on the canvas, Gray said. To build a three-dimensional effect, she used a technique called sfumato, which required extensive smudging to develop a hazy and obscure finish to the painting.
Sfumato was a Renaissance painting technique used most famously by Leonardo da Vinci in his "Mona Lisa."
Each nebula painting took about two months to complete, yet Gray said the finished drawings encouraged her to continue the series.
"It's so worth it once the painting is done," she said. "I have no reason to stop. I want to show what’s out there for us to be inspired by and in awe of."
Before the showing at Tellers, Angela Speck, associate professor in MU’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, asked Gray to be an artist-in-residence at the Laws Observatory and exhibit her works there.
"We tend to think that art and science are very different things, but I wanted to find ways to bring them together to demonstrate that astronomy goes beyond science," Speck said. "Meridith presented us an opportunity."
Speck said her husband purchased one of the nebula paintings for her birthday.
"I adore it, it's amazing how well Meridith captures the images of the nebula," she said.
Speck also encouraged Gray to reproduce her work as prints, although Gray told her that would be a future step in her career.
"I'm still a student, and I feel like I have to multiply the series by five in order to call myself an artist," she said. "Right now I just want to focus on producing the work and making a name for myself."
Sixteen examples of Gray's art works are available for sale at Tellers until the end of December.
In addition to the nebula collection, an abstract, mixed-media series that involves painting with tissue paper is also included.
"I miss when I was just given supplies and allowed to do whatever I wanted," she said. "I'm trying to go back to things that I did in high school when I was really free-spirited and not held down by any techniques."
"It's starting to get ugly," the Columbia College art student said as she layered a grayish blue onto the painting.
"That's not right. I need orange and red for the sky instead."
Gray quickly grabbed a cloth and wiped off the blue off the canvas.
"I like it that a lot of the times I don't know what I'm doing," she said. "Spontaneity is an artist's greatest tool."
She stepped back, took a look at her work and finally nodded.
"Now, the swallows can take command."
Gray, a senior, created a group of paintings featuring barn swallows for an art class. Despite the long nights she spent on this collection, she said the effort doesn't match the demanding nebula series she worked on for more than a year.
That series is a collection of seven oil paintings based on Gray's rendering of nebula clouds from photographs. The series is being exhibited this month at Tellers Gallery & Bar, 820 E. Broadway.
A nebula is an interstellar cloud made of dust and ionized gases. Gray said her inspiration came from a general astronomy course she took at Moberly Area Community College.
"The moment that I saw the Orion Nebula picture, I knew it was something I wanted to paint," she said. "They're so big — light years across — they're really fascinating and beautiful to me."
Gray said it took a long time for her to adjust to the level of accuracy and skills she needed to paint the transience and sophistication of the nebula.
"Before this I really had no artistic direction at all," she said. "I'm trying to take it up to the professional level with this series and step out of what I'm used to doing in school that is free form."
The hardest part of the process, Gray said, was the beginning, when she needed to scale the image onto the canvas proportionally. She called it time-consuming and dull at the same time.
The fact that nebulae tend to emerge slowly at night also required her to work late to capture the haziness and depth of the clouds.
"These paintings have density and atmosphere in them," she said. "I feel like their depth is better achieved because the dim light brings out the beauty of the nebulae."
Oil painting is a process of layers that keep emerging and recessing on the canvas, Gray said. To build a three-dimensional effect, she used a technique called sfumato, which required extensive smudging to develop a hazy and obscure finish to the painting.
Sfumato was a Renaissance painting technique used most famously by Leonardo da Vinci in his "Mona Lisa."
Each nebula painting took about two months to complete, yet Gray said the finished drawings encouraged her to continue the series.
"It's so worth it once the painting is done," she said. "I have no reason to stop. I want to show what’s out there for us to be inspired by and in awe of."
Before the showing at Tellers, Angela Speck, associate professor in MU’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, asked Gray to be an artist-in-residence at the Laws Observatory and exhibit her works there.
"We tend to think that art and science are very different things, but I wanted to find ways to bring them together to demonstrate that astronomy goes beyond science," Speck said. "Meridith presented us an opportunity."
Speck said her husband purchased one of the nebula paintings for her birthday.
"I adore it, it's amazing how well Meridith captures the images of the nebula," she said.
Speck also encouraged Gray to reproduce her work as prints, although Gray told her that would be a future step in her career.
"I'm still a student, and I feel like I have to multiply the series by five in order to call myself an artist," she said. "Right now I just want to focus on producing the work and making a name for myself."
Sixteen examples of Gray's art works are available for sale at Tellers until the end of December.
In addition to the nebula collection, an abstract, mixed-media series that involves painting with tissue paper is also included.
"I miss when I was just given supplies and allowed to do whatever I wanted," she said. "I'm trying to go back to things that I did in high school when I was really free-spirited and not held down by any techniques."
2011年6月12日星期日
North Georgia Medical Office Sees The (Solar) Light
Energy Solar Systems, the solar division of Energy Roofing Systems, recently broke ground on a 37.49kW rooftop and ground mount solar install for an orthopedic office in North Georgia. The double layer ground-mount will be located along the back perimeter of the medical office's parking lot. The system is expected to generate 58,000 kWh of energy in the first year of operation alone.
Comprised of one hundred and sixty-three 230 watt panels and the latest in solar energy conversion microinverter technology, the orthopedic office will see an estimated one-half million dollars in energy savings over 35 years, reducing their monthly bill by over 15%. The project takes advantage of various federal and state tax incentives that help offset over 90% of the upfront cost.
The development is a win-win for the medical company. It will not only save them money and help protect against the already signed into legislation power rate increases from GA Power, but will also establish the orthopedic office as a role model for other medical companies and North Georgia businesses in the area to adopt renewables and implement clean energy practices.
Comprised of one hundred and sixty-three 230 watt panels and the latest in solar energy conversion microinverter technology, the orthopedic office will see an estimated one-half million dollars in energy savings over 35 years, reducing their monthly bill by over 15%. The project takes advantage of various federal and state tax incentives that help offset over 90% of the upfront cost.
The development is a win-win for the medical company. It will not only save them money and help protect against the already signed into legislation power rate increases from GA Power, but will also establish the orthopedic office as a role model for other medical companies and North Georgia businesses in the area to adopt renewables and implement clean energy practices.
2011年3月30日星期三
The officer will generally work two days per week
Volt is looking to fill a Product Quality Assurance position with a Petaluma company. Job includes developing test methodologies and test cases for evaluating features, develop automation test capabilities and perform lab testing on a multi-node system using Ethernet and OTN. Minimum of 5 years testing experience in the telecom, Ethernet transport or software fields.
The city of Petaluma is seeking PT Parking Enforcement Officers. The officer will generally work two days per week, on Fridays and Saturdays from 7a.m. to 5p.m., and may occasionally work up to 40 hours per week.The position is responsible for patrolling assigned areas to enforce appropriate codes, laws, ordinances and regulations pertaining to on-street and public parking. $22-26/hour
Fresenius Medical Services is looking for Bilingual Nurses to assist with home dialysis. Responsible for accurate documentation of information related to the patients training and treatment. Responsible for ongoing monitoring, assessment and intervention for home patients including home visits, clinical appointments, additional training sessions or reviews, lab studies and annual studies such as x-ray and EKG.
Requires degree from an accredited nursing school and appropriate state licensure. Minimum of one-year Hemodialysis experience. Must be bilingual in English and Spanish (please note this on your resume). Peritoneal dialysis experience preferred.
CyberCoders Engineering is seeking a Multimedia Systems Developer with RTSP and G Streaming experience. Seeking candidates with a college degree, experience with Linux server application development, C/C++ programming and strong debugging skills. The job entails designing, coordinating and delivering fully functioning products that incorporate sound, full-motion video, text and graphics into one application that is interactive for the end user.
Other duties include tracking changes with the multimedia project, designing, creating and testing complete and fully working prototypes for the management team.
The Washington Square Chase Bank is looking for a PT Teller to work 20 hours a week. The right candidate will handle financial transactions accurately and efficiently, be able to work well in a team environment to service customer, have strong listening and verbal communication skills and be detail-oriented and organized.
A high school degree or GED is required, along with a minimum six months cash-handling experience. Must be able to work branch hours, including weekends and some evenings.
The Converse store at the Outlets is hiring Retail Staff. Duties include opening and closing store, ensuring that all visual directives, promotions, and markdowns are completed in a timely manner ensuring team members are motivated to hit them.
All candidates must successfully complete a thorough background investigation prior to receiving any final offer of employment.
The city of Petaluma is seeking PT Parking Enforcement Officers. The officer will generally work two days per week, on Fridays and Saturdays from 7a.m. to 5p.m., and may occasionally work up to 40 hours per week.The position is responsible for patrolling assigned areas to enforce appropriate codes, laws, ordinances and regulations pertaining to on-street and public parking. $22-26/hour
Fresenius Medical Services is looking for Bilingual Nurses to assist with home dialysis. Responsible for accurate documentation of information related to the patients training and treatment. Responsible for ongoing monitoring, assessment and intervention for home patients including home visits, clinical appointments, additional training sessions or reviews, lab studies and annual studies such as x-ray and EKG.
Requires degree from an accredited nursing school and appropriate state licensure. Minimum of one-year Hemodialysis experience. Must be bilingual in English and Spanish (please note this on your resume). Peritoneal dialysis experience preferred.
CyberCoders Engineering is seeking a Multimedia Systems Developer with RTSP and G Streaming experience. Seeking candidates with a college degree, experience with Linux server application development, C/C++ programming and strong debugging skills. The job entails designing, coordinating and delivering fully functioning products that incorporate sound, full-motion video, text and graphics into one application that is interactive for the end user.
Other duties include tracking changes with the multimedia project, designing, creating and testing complete and fully working prototypes for the management team.
The Washington Square Chase Bank is looking for a PT Teller to work 20 hours a week. The right candidate will handle financial transactions accurately and efficiently, be able to work well in a team environment to service customer, have strong listening and verbal communication skills and be detail-oriented and organized.
A high school degree or GED is required, along with a minimum six months cash-handling experience. Must be able to work branch hours, including weekends and some evenings.
The Converse store at the Outlets is hiring Retail Staff. Duties include opening and closing store, ensuring that all visual directives, promotions, and markdowns are completed in a timely manner ensuring team members are motivated to hit them.
All candidates must successfully complete a thorough background investigation prior to receiving any final offer of employment.
2011年3月13日星期日
Enecsys Micro-Inverter Wins Technology Excellence Award
Enecsys Limited, a UK micro-inverter company, has won the award for Excellence in the Field
of Environmental Technology at the CleanEquity Awards Ceremony for its microinverter.
Innovator Capital and the Monaco Chamber of Economic Development hosted the two-day annual
CleanEquity event at which the world's most promising next-generation clean technology
companies presented their credentials to financial and strategic investors, policy makers,
the media and end-users. The field included 34 clean technology companies from four
continents. The invitation-only CleanEquity Monaco event, presided over by His Serene
Highness (HSH) Prince Albert II of Monaco, was held on 4 March 2011.
The Enecsys microinverter represents a breakthrough in inverter design for residential and
commercial solar photovoltaic (PV) installations. Its patented technology has, eliminated
components that limit inverter life. Originally developed at Cambridge University in the UK,
the Enecsys microinverter enables solar PV systems to harvest between 5% and 20% more energy
over their lifetime. It eliminates the high-voltage direct current (DC) wiring and it
enhances system optimisation by monitoring the performance of each solar module. It also
eliminates the string inverter, a common source of failure.
The Enecsys microinverter is available in both Europe and North America and matches the
operating life of solar modules (more than 25 years), operates from -40° to +85° C and is
warranted for 20 years. Enecsys micro-inverters are installed on the mounting rack behind the
solar modules, either one inverter per solar module, or one for every two modules.
of Environmental Technology at the CleanEquity Awards Ceremony for its microinverter.
Innovator Capital and the Monaco Chamber of Economic Development hosted the two-day annual
CleanEquity event at which the world's most promising next-generation clean technology
companies presented their credentials to financial and strategic investors, policy makers,
the media and end-users. The field included 34 clean technology companies from four
continents. The invitation-only CleanEquity Monaco event, presided over by His Serene
Highness (HSH) Prince Albert II of Monaco, was held on 4 March 2011.
The Enecsys microinverter represents a breakthrough in inverter design for residential and
commercial solar photovoltaic (PV) installations. Its patented technology has, eliminated
components that limit inverter life. Originally developed at Cambridge University in the UK,
the Enecsys microinverter enables solar PV systems to harvest between 5% and 20% more energy
over their lifetime. It eliminates the high-voltage direct current (DC) wiring and it
enhances system optimisation by monitoring the performance of each solar module. It also
eliminates the string inverter, a common source of failure.
The Enecsys microinverter is available in both Europe and North America and matches the
operating life of solar modules (more than 25 years), operates from -40° to +85° C and is
warranted for 20 years. Enecsys micro-inverters are installed on the mounting rack behind the
solar modules, either one inverter per solar module, or one for every two modules.
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