FIGURES     BLOG ENTRY

F I G U R E S and all that JAZZ, Stacey Carter, Holly Crocker Garcia, Janet Hammond, Constantine Kermes,
John Lehman, Robert Patierno, Catherine Prescott, Clifton Sheely and Fran Williams Wagner
CHOCOLATE and JAZZ RECEPTION
Friday, February 12, 2009 5:00-8:00 p.m.
Jazz by THE REESE PROJECT Front Wall Feature HENRY LIBHART

LYNDEN GALLERY signature, biannual Figures, Chocolate and Jazz exhibition will kick off the gallery’s Tenth Year Anniversary Celebration. Featuring work of artists’ past and present, the exhibition brings together a unique group of individuals and mediums, including bronze, printmaking, drawing and sketching. The Opening Reception will be held on Friday, February 12th from 5:00 till 8:00 p.m. and will feature jazz by long-time gallery favorite, THE REESE PROJECT. The exhibition continues thru April 10th.

FEATURED ARTISTS include work by the recently deceased CONSTANTINE KERMES AND FRAN WILLIAMS WAGNER. Well-known regionalists EVA STINA BENDER, JANET HAMMOND, JOHN LEHMAN, ROBERT PATIERNO AND CATHERINE PRESCOTT, San Francisco based STACEY CARTER, and sculptors JAMES BRIGHT, HOLLY CROCKER GARCIA and CLIFTON SHEELY round out the figurative works exhibition. A small collection of HENRY LIBHART’s recently available drawings and paintings are the Front Wall Feature.

CONSTANTINE KERMES flair for modernist color and form are no less apparent in his figurative painting “Last Pose of the Day”. Born in 1923 and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Kermes lived and worked in Lancaster County from 1955 until his recent passing in 2009. An industrial and graphic designer for Sperry New Holland Ford, he received numerous national awards and recognition for his work. As an artist coming of age in the mid-Twentieth century, Kermes work is ripe with iconic and metaphoric representation.

FRAN WILLIAMS WAGNER was a ceramicist, creating hand-cut and glazed tiles for monumental murals she designed. A master of color, texture and proportion, she honed her skills sketching the figure in ink, marker, watercolor or graphite. Her drawings were typically lyrical in movement and realistic, but often graphically dissected, echoing the thinking required for her mural projects. Born in 1916 in San Francisco, she spent much of her career in Miami, moving to Elizabethtown in her later years. Fran died in January of 2010.

EVA STINA BENDER’s figurative work has received accolades – her refined, yet improvisational quality of line and colorful watercolor washes are reminiscent of the late Charles Demuth who lived and worked in Lancaster County in the early 1900’s. Open to “accidents and surprises”, Eva prefers to paint “on the spot” completing a painting in a single sitting. Born and raised in Umea, Sweden where she returns often to visit family, she has lived and worked in Lebanon County for over 30 years.

JANET HAMMOND deftly explores the figure in a variety of accomplished mediums – oil, watercolor, pastel or graphite. Spontaneity of form and color provide her work with an impressionistic canvas and an emotional quality. A world-renown, equine portrait painter, Hammond spent the earlier part of her career not only painting but as a jockey herself. In recent years her portraiture commissions are of people rather than animals, often including the intimate details of her subjects interior surroundings.

JOHN LEHMAN, born in 1916, retired to South Carolina recently, leaving a legacy of painting and drawing of the Susquehanna River and it’s surrounding landscape. He worked as the Art Director for the Continental Press Company in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, all the while exploring his favorite haunts en plein’ aire. The gallery recently acquired a portfolio of sketches, mostly landscapes, and discovered a small collection of pen and ink figure drawings tucked inside which will be included in this exhibition.

ROBERT PATIERNO, printmaker, instructor, painter and illustrator, is prolific in his expression of the world as he sees it. Not one to mince words, or to disguise the humor and irony he perceives in all things ordinary, his images are richly layered with insight and commentary. Aside from establishing the Lancaster College of Art and Design in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, as cofounder, he gained international praise as a master printmaker. He continues to live and work in York County where he was born.

CATHERINE PRESCOTT is a portrait artist, well known for her intuitive ability to capture not only the image of a person, but their personality and depth of character. She began commissioned portraiture in 1975, initially painting only from life, until the works grew larger and more detailed, requiring numerous sittings and photographs. Recognized by the National Portrait Gallery, at the Smithsonian, Washington, DC, she lives and works with her husband, a sculptor, in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.

STACEY CARTER captures time, and timeless moments in an image, a quality she carries into her figurative works. Gestural and colorful, in paint and charcoal, she employs her signature layering of form, medium and color. Known for her multi-media, layered and painted photographs, she collects images, both vintage and contemporary, and proceeds to set the stage for the work focusing the viewer on the chosen moment. Born and raised in Cape May, New Jersey, she currently lives and works in San Francisco, California.

JAMES BRIGHT’s bronze and wood sculpture is “reflective of the ever-changing emotions, spaces and relationships” that surround him. Capturing a chance pose, linking the form of personality and nature is instinctual to him, and provides endless opportunity for hone his vision. In each piece, he strives to pay homage as much to the craft, as to the subject. Graceful elegant lines stir the viewer; the characteristic texture and dimensionality beg one to “please touch”. A retired teacher, Bright lives and works in Reedsville, Pennsylvania.

HOLLY CROCKER GARCIA passion for ballet and the arts come together in her explorations as a sculptor. A dancer herself, she responds to the “exquisite line of the human body”, and the “fleeting, ethereal experience one can take away only in the minds eye.” Her realistic sculptures in bronze give evidence of her practiced hand and rigorous attention to detail. A past rich in observation and movement feeds her work with echoes of the early 1900’s art and design movements in all their grace and elegance. Born and raised in Connecticut, Holly currently lives and works in Lititz, Pennsylvania.

CLIFTON SHEELY was consumed with recreating what he considered to be the prime human male form, as his own body was losing to cancer. Inspired by his travels to Europe – especially Greece and Greek mythology, he considered the male figure to be “strong and vital, yet spiritual – always reflecting to a higher guidance.” Sheely died in 1998 at the age of forty-one, leaving a collection of works and commissions behind. His plaster mural works were commissioned for Sax of Fifth Avenue and Godiva Chocolates. His expertise was called upon to sculpt the 24-foot bronze horse based on Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings for an ill-fated commission in the 15th century, which was presented to the Duke of Milan 500 years later.

HENRY LIBHART is a life long resident of Marietta, Pennsylvania, and was a teacher and professor of art and English in Elizabethtown, both at the high school and at Elizabethtown College. Legend has it Libhart started the art department at the college out of a closet, he was revered by his students. Libhart’s trompe l’oeil paintings were often done in the spirit of the late 1800’s when “fool the eye” paintings were popularized by painters like William Harnett. No longer painting and drawing, his work rarely comes available on the market, as collectors are loathe to let them go. Recently, the gallery acquired a small collection of his drawings and paintings that will be exhibited as the Front Wall Feature.

LYNDEN GALLERY CELEBRATES TEN YEARS in 2010, opening our doors at 117 S. Market Street, Downtown Elizabethtown for the first time in 2000. For the owner, Lisa Clemens, the celebration also marks 25 years since first incorporating her small business. In 1985 she was a calligrapher working from home at the kitchen table and raising her first child. The business grew alongside the family, and she opened a small frame shop and calligraphy studio in the front rooms of their Victorian home just down the street from where the gallery is now located. With four children all in school, she moved the frame shop out of the home and opened a fine art gallery. By 2007, life came full circle with the construction of a residence and design studio above the gallery, the original Downtown Fire Hall in Elizabethtown, where she now lives with her family.

THE GALLERY SUPPORTS JAZZ alongside Fine Art as "simply a natural pairing" - exhibiting work of some of the area's most exceptional jazz talents. The suggested $5.00 cover charge supports the musicians, as many of the bands regularly agree to perform for less than they typically command, or for whatever comes in the door. Generous support of our patrons allows Lynden Gallery to keep the music coming in this acoustically pleasant, smoke-free environment, the vibe resonating between the visual and musical arts.

LYNDEN GALLERY features central Pennsylvania’s largest Fine Original Art Gallery, offering Custom Framing, Art and Interior Design Consultation to a discerning clientele. Located at 117 South Market Street, in Downtown Elizabethtown’s original Fire Hall, the gallery is open Tuesday thru Saturday 9:00 to 5:00. Evening hours are available by appointment. Directions can be found on the gallery website, www.lyndengallery.com, or by calling 717-367-9236. The gallery is handicap accessible and offers convenient parking.