The November exhibition at The Trippe Gallery features award winning artists who have exhibited at The Waterfowl Festival in recent years.
Due to the uncertain environment created by the Covid pandemic, the Waterfowl Festival has had to cancel its on site festival. The Trippe Gallery will be filling the gap by exhibiting favorite festival artists Eric Tardif(featured festival artist 2018), Nancy Tankersley(featured artist 2019), Melanie Fain, Paula Waterman, and Jill Basham.
The grace and beauty of birds in flight has inspired a great variety of artistic interpretations, but perhaps none are as unique as Quebec artist Eric Tardif’s. His wood sculptures capture the elegance and graceful movements of birds through abstract expressions, achieved by employing an ancient method to realize his visions-steam bending which is a process in which heat vapor is used to make wood slats pliable for builders.
“No Need for Company” by Nancy Tankersley
Nancy Tankersley’s interest in capturing the essence of the working watermen is evidenced in her paintings that pay tribute to the importance of waterman to the Eastern Shore culture. “I especially like painting watermen who are hand tonging oysters the way it has been done for 250 years. Not only does it take good “sea legs” and a strong back, it seems to me there is a particular grace, akin to a well trained athlete, in the movements of the waterman who is balancing on the edge of the boat, using long unwieldy tools to fish foresters laying on the bottom.”
Melanie Fain’s passion for nature is clearly reflected in her subtle, yet powerful works of art. For over 30 years, Melanie has brought the beauty and drama of nature to her collectors offering them an intimate view of the natural world. She translates her sensitive perceptions into elegant hand-colored etchings and watercolors. “I have always been drawn to nature – it is my livelihood, my recreation, my comfort, my home. I want my work to reflect the simple pleasure of looking at nature.”
Paula Waterman’s chosen subject matter is mostly the animals she sees in the wild and in the company of people. She has a particular interest in birds, and of dog subjects, though landscape and marine subjects are also important to her. A common thread in all her work in all media is the critical importance of light source and light color; in fact she feels that light is the true subject in all her work
Jill Basham is an award winning landscape painter who lives in Talbot County. “I most love painting landscapes and am particularly intrigued by how light creates mood. My goal is to try and get the emotion of the scene across to the viewer by matching the mood of the scene with my brushwork, color palette and value/temperature range.” Basham’s work has been featured in Plein Air Magazine’s “Why This Works”, an analysis of what makes a particular painting successful.
The Trippe Gallery is located at 23 N Harrison Street in the heart of Historic Easton. For more information please call 410-310-8727 or visit the website thetrippegallery.com
Write a Letter to the Editor on this Article
We encourage readers to offer their point of view on this article by submitting the following form. Editing is sometimes necessary and is done at the discretion of the editorial staff.