How much is that piggy in the window?

The real question is, "How much does it weigh?" Answer: about 260 lbs. While it isn't a completely solid structure (though, it is nearly so), it was carved from a single hunk of pine.

Brand new to the gallery is artist Jamie Townsend, of Springfield, VT. Currently we are exhibiting four fantastically colorful and fairly sizable wooden sculptures, two of which are animal forms and two, human-like abstractions. Jamie uses a chainsaw to sculpt but the second part of the process, the embellishment, is a laborous endeavor using oil paints over an acrylic base.

According to Jamie, "I bring the fluid chaos and variety of our everyday world into focus, gradually allowing the viewer to search for a source and make connections. I tend to use childlike characters and colors as well as line work and shapes, challenging positive and negative space. With this style, I am bridging the gap between the playful (imagery and colors) and the systematic (layering drawing/patterns)." He cites two of his influences as architect Gaudi and artist Hundertwasser.

Primarily a painter/illustrator, these three-dimensional pieces mark the start of an exciting new body of work for Jamie. In just a few weeks since his debut, the PIG is already a gallery favorite...and a bargain at $2400. (It's really big)

-cw

(Paintings shown with PIG are by Norm Thomas)

Guess Who Has Ed Carson's Still Life Paintings?

After a nearly year-long absence, North Adams artist Ed Carson has returned more than a dozen of his much admired and collected still life compositions in oil, to the NAACO Gallery. These small gems (at 9" x 12" for most, framed to 10" x 13") are lush, vibrant and glossy interpretations of fruit, desserts, even everday objects. He has self-published several books, including one that is solely devoted to the subject, "Ten Years of Still Life Painting".

Within the gallery, Ed has shown a diverse body of work over the last year, most of which were a big departure from these still life paintings, including abstract portraits and gestural, expressionist works with irridescent paints. Almost all of these paintings are much larger in size (at 30" x 40") and were painted in acrylics. Currently, we are exhibiting his latest work based on the landscape of Sheep Hill and area surrounding The Clark Art Institute. Also abstract interpretations, these large canvases are lively expressions of the Berkshire Hills.

Take a look at Ed's portfolio page to see the work of this wonderfully diverse artist. We also carry Ed's other art monographs: "Landscape Paintings", "Train People II" and "Body Parts".

-cw

New Art at Porches Inn

The Challenge: Two artists needed to create new, original art for the lobby of the Porches Inn at MassMoca.

The Players: Artists Franco Pellegrino and Tony Conner rose to the challenge and created eight beautiful works that work cohesively in both theme and palette.

At first glance, one might think that the bold acrylic paintings of Franco Pellegrino and the soft watercolors of Tony Conner may not work so well together. Over the last eighteen months, Franco is known to have exhibited large, iconic images such as birds and cows but also landscape elements such as trees, in the gallery. His palette is varied, but always clean and vivid. Tony paints subjects more traditionally and his watercolor paintings of the MA/VT landscape and architectural subjects are rendered more precisely and with an often realistic palette.

Franco and Tony were given only broad parameters. Both artists have taken a big leap with this challenge and his own work and have succeeded brilliantly, if I do say so myself! Franco chose to pursue a palette and style of painting that he terms "electric". This new work has proven to be immensely popular with viewers within the few short months he has been painting them. Trees dominate his themes lately, but he still manages to create a cow or two-but now they are "electric" in golds, blues and turquoise. Tony's leap went farther still. He created several long, horiziontal landscapes entitled, "The Berkshire Series" but unlike any of his work the gallery has exhibited prior, these are loose, abstract, gestural representations, employing a more colorful and less realistic palette.

To view these wonderful new works, make a visit to the Porches Inn (Reception Lobby) or view these paintings along with their full gallery portfolios on our web site: NAACO Gallery

BRAVO! -cw

The Porches Inn at MassMoca is located at 231 River Street in downtown North Adams.