If you’ve loved the group of new work in our new show, In the Limelight, here at the West End Gallery, then you won’t want to miss the Gallery Talk that will be taking place here Saturday. It features five of the artists– Treacy Ziegler, Aleta Yarrow, James Ramsdell, Anne Bialke and Michael Barr– from this stellar show who will share some insights into their work as well as field questions. It’s an exciting and diverse group so this should be a great opportunity for fans of any of these artists to learn a bit more about the work they love. The talk starts at 1 PM here at the gallery and we’re planning on it running until around 2:30. Hope to see you here!
James Ramsdell is one of the artists that you can meet and hear Saturday. Here are a few words that he shared about the story behind one of the paintings in this exhibit:
One of the things that has inspired me in my paintings has been human and animal behavior. I love catching those moments of doing what comes naturally with total disregard of what’s going on around you. The subject matter for my painting “Where Did It Go”, which is currently included in the West End Galley show, “In the Limelight” is such a painting.
Every Labor Day in my home town a line is strung down the center of main street; a ball is hung on it, fire department hoses are brought out, and teams go at it to see who will be the champion. Needless to say water is running in the street! So I’m standing there watching the show and I look across the street and here are these three boys playing in the water. They could care less about hose fights; they were far more interested in where the water was going. The boy on the left, the leader, was really into it-finding anything he could and putting it in the water to watch it go down the drain. His brother (the boy in the middle) was getting as close to the action as he could. The third boy on the right was also interested in this enterprise, but being older, wasn’t sure if it was a good idea. It reminded me of when I was their age going to a basketball game with my father and my friend. We slipped under the bleachers, and played until it was time to go home. I think my father said something like, “That’s the last time I take you two to a basketball game!” We had so much fun!
I took a bunch of reference photos, did some pencil sketches, and finally an oil sketch for the oil painting. In the oil sketch I included some of the people who were standing around, but I decided for the final painting not to include them; they were superfluous! They didn’t matter, as far as the boys were concerned, who were in their own little world.
“Where Did It Go”- I selected this as the title for it’s double meaning. One, the boys are playing in the water and watching their “water boats” sail down the drain, and two, the unbridled curiosity of youth. We lose that along the way to becoming adults. Such a shame, it was so much fun!
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