New exhibits opening at the Salmon Falls Gallery in Shelburne Falls will feature the unique and contrasting, yet complementing naturalistic work of two oil painters, both of whom draw inspiration from the natural landscapes around them.
After a nearly two month delay due to the rippling effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Salmon Falls Gallery will be hosting the two exhibits from Oct. 2 to Nov. 15. The pieces on display each showcase the specific style of each artist while working together to create a sense of connectivity to nature. Susan Valentine, who describes herself as a “realistic painter,” brings the exquisite beauty of what she sees in nature to the canvas. Laura Radwell’s work showcases abstract depictions from her “Embodied Landscape” series.
Valentine’s oil paintings displayed in the upcoming exhibit feature realistic depictions of various flowers. Her technique of using many layers of thin paint renders the flowers luminous, be they small or large. One painting, a detailed depiction of blue hydrangea blooms, is 9-feet-tall by 5-feet-wide.
Bringing the beauty of the earth onto canvas is more than just a pastime for Valentine, it is her response to the environmental degradation that humans have inflicted on the planet. She referenced the 1973 dystopian film “Soylent Green,” in which characters in the movie were shown a video depicting the planet’s natural beauties which, in the world of the film, were completely wiped out. The footage was shown to the characters on a large screen, immersing them completely in the imagery as they were deeply moved by the sight and remembrance of their beautiful blue marble of a planet.
“I have always wondered — if the world as we know it ends and I am one of the few left to help raise it from the ashes … how much of it would I be able to recall fully enough to recreate?” Valentine asked. “I’m not able to remember a single novel well enough to bring it back. I can’t build a car’s engine or figure out how electricity works. But if I could create some works to communicate the world’s former beauty, if I could be the one person in our small troupe of survivors who would put together worlds to call back the beauty that once was, that could be my contribution.”
After starting and working in her own marketing and communications business for 30 years, Radwell has returned to her dream of being a full-time painter. Radwell said she almost always paints from feelings, spontaneously, without elaborate forethought or planning, giving voice to external impressions and internal feelings and emotions.
“Much of my work has been characterized by atmospheric and dream-like components of landscape that drift into, overlap and morph into one another,” Radwell said. “These new works are an exploration of a further point along the continuum in that they involve tighter, more disciplined and dynamic compositions. They emerge from a place I have not been before, a willingness to commit to more definition.
The incorporation of line allows her to divide the canvas into more distinct areas of color that is vibrant and energetic, she said. Geometry, line and shape, which Radwell sees as muscular and lyrical, reflects the natural landscape, but often also goes beyond this to evoke the sinuous forms and contours of the human body.
“I see the work as a melding of gesture and body contained in landscape and landscape contained in the body,” she continued.
A native New Yorker, Radwell is a self-taught artist and designer who has been living in Massachusetts since the 1970s and began to paint in the late-1980s. Over the years, she has continued to explore various media with traditional oil painting, sculpture, calligraphy and photography. Most recently, after a long hiatus, she resumed painting with oils. She is currently working on larger scale paintings that focus on atmosphere and her inner impressions of the landscape.
The brick and mortar gallery will open five days a week, Thursday to Monday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The gallery exhibits can also be viewed virtually 24/7 through the Salmon Falls online store. For more information, visit salmonfallsgallery.com or call 413-625-9833. For more information on Susan Valentine, visit susanvalentineart.com. For more information on Laura Radwell, visit lauraradwell.com.
Zack DeLuca can be reached at zdeluca@recorder.com or 413-930-4579.