Exhibit: From the Garden to the Forest
Where: The Red Hen Bakery and Café, Middlesex, Vermont
When: May through June
Artists:
Anne Unangst, Montpelier (802-229-0523)
Cindy Griffith, North Middlesex (802-229-4326)
Marcia Hill, Worcester (802-223-3591)
About a year ago, three pastel artists began meeting to paint together on a regular basis. The artists had the idea that it would be fun to join together in showing their art as one show in several venues in this area. The show, From the Garden to the Forest, covers the subject of fruit to fall foliage to Loons. The trio each presents their art with a completely different style providing the viewers ample opportunity for variety.
The Artists:
Anne Unangst:
*Anne grew up among family and friends who created art in various forms. Wanting to draw became as strong an urge as to want to ride a bike, play "Kick-the-Can," or hang out with friends. Getting together with one particular good friend often consisted of drawing together. Attending a large suburban high school that offered a fine arts curriculum, she continued her inclination to draw and paint. During college and
adult years her attention turned toward careers in education and human services, yet throughout adulthood Anne often sought refuge in art classes and groups of many mediums. In 1990 she took a pastel class with Jeneane Lunn. That was the first of many classes to be taken with Jeneane. Jeneane opened the way for Anne to love pastels and to begin to understand how to use them. Today Anne paints regularly with two other pastelists who motivate and inspire each other. Together they share a compatibility as artists as well as a love of the medium. Anne is delighted to continue to explore the world through pastels.
Cindy Griffith:
Cindy is a life-long Vermonter having grown up in Waterbury Center and beginning her art training from her father, Artist Leon Griffith. Her father died when she was only 17. Cindy minore
d in art during college and has continued taking art classes in many other venues. Cindy’s inspiration comes from all the details in nature such as the veins and contours of a lady’s slipper, the glistening splashes of sunlight suspended on the surface of a babbling brook, forest shadows and mountain sun. Cindy says, “My eyes see and my heart feels so many beautiful things. As an artist, I hope to share my impress
ion of my sight and experiences. If something I create connects and makes another person happy, then I’ve accomplished my task.” Cindy paints with oil and pastel. Oil painting was the first medium she fell in love with as a child, enjoying the sensation of oils gliding over a smooth surface with a fine brush. Later, she fell in love with the physical interactivity and the intimacy of the relationship with pastel painting. Cindy’s shares a small business, Hunger Mountain Arts, with her husband, a Vermont Woodturner. As partners, they share their lives and their art, too.
Marcia Hill:
Marcia took a Community College drawing class in 2009 using pastels, and she fell in love with
the medium. “They have such intense color,” Hill comments. “I love that you apply them directly with your hands; no brush as an intermediary.” A year after her class, she began painting regularly, at the age of 60, and finds it a fascinating experience being a novice at this point in her lif
e. She has been learning from workshops,
feedback from other artists and a mentoring relationship with California artist, Cathy Carey, and has been gratified to see her art develop even in this short period of time. Marcia says, “I want to express the inner aliveness of things, particularly in the natural world.” Marcia appreciates art that is at least somewhat representational, but is not all that interested in accurate depictions. “Rather, what I want to show is the spirit and energy – and even occasionally magic – that is present in every aspect of nature, from the folds of the hills to the light on the leaves, “ Hill comments. Since Marcia has started painting, she says the world looks more beautiful to her, which she had not expected. Hill reflects, “Things sometimes appear almost lit from within, and it’s that inner light that I want to convey.” Marcia is having fun, working hard and just trying to get there.
May - June - The Red Hen Bakery and Café
July - Capitol Grounds, Montpelier, Vermont
August - September - Community Center in East Montpelier
December - City Center in Montpelier
Contact: Cindy Griffith
cindy.griffith.vt@gmail.com
Phone: 802-229-4326
