Exhibits

The photo works are from the Connecticut River Series, which have been featured in two exhibition of this series in 2014 in the Pioneer Valley.  In addition, there are three prints from a new series of works now in progress, with the working title: "Naked Landscapes". The work in both these series is part of a larger body of work taken in the late fall, winter and early springs, when the foliage is mostly gone.  The colors, forms and interaction of light, water and trees, reveal their essential beauty in unique and subtle ways. Carl Nardiello is a professional photographer from New York, now living in Northampton. Archival pigmented inkjet prints, 17x22" image size, and mounted in a 20x24" frame with glass.  All materials used in mounting are to archival standards.

Artist's Statement: The Pioneer Valley in Western Massachusetts has beautiful scenery, as anyone who has visited will attest - mountains, rivers, lakes and ponds throughout many towns.  I’ve been fortunate to live in Deerfield for over 25 years, within 10 minutes of some of the most beautiful landscapes in the valley. I have a BFA from Cooper Union, and when my children were grown, I started getting back to painting.  I began with pastels, sitting in my car on the side of the road.  However, when I began painting in oils, my practice became to visit a location, take photos, and use them as reference, together with my memory of the scene, for a painting done in the studio. Last year, I began working en plein air, painting outdoors on location in Deerfield and a whole new world opened up. Plein air is a completely different way of working.  In one or two hours , before the light changes, you try to capture a scene.  There is always so much more to see than there is time to get it on canvas! As you work, the light is constantly changing, emphasizing different colors, changing forms, so you need to make decisions on the fly about what to spend time on, what notes you need to make, how to articulate the scene.  Sometimes everything comes together - and the result is a complete painting.  More often, it’s a note, a sketch, or an experiment in articulating light and form. Painting an impression en plein air celebrates what is happening right in the moment. For me, it has also become a meditation - a way to focus on and appreciate a very beautiful part of the world, on canvas.

I am pleased to be showing mostly recent oil paintings at the Tilton Library. Some of you probably know my daughter, her husband and family, Raloon and Grant, Maddie and Soren Bialek and Pat Thompson who live nearby. I live in Vermont, and also spend time in NYC and South Deerfield. I love drawing and painting and have been doing it since I was six, never stopped. I have a Bachelor of Fine Art from Cooper Union and studied at the New York Studio School. I have taught art from kindergarten up thru graduate college level for thirty five years most recently at Johnson State College in Vermont. My gallery is in NYC, Blue Mountain Gallery, where I will have a show in May, 2017. You might have seen works I showed with Jane Trigere at The Arts Bank. and at the Deerfield Gallery a few years ago. I almost always paint from actual life, that is how I find the most interesting forms, however I also love other kinds of art and things people make. Art is an idea in a sensuous form.

Artist's statement: "After more than 40 years of making watercolors paintings I am still inspired by the winter landscape and I hope in some small way these humble paintings reflect the beauty and wonder I see in it." All works are archivally framed. All displayed art is for sale and a portion of the proceeds benefit Tilton Library.

Artist Statement: This series of paintings "Deerfield 1704" deals with conflict in the Pocumtuck Valley. A tangle of alliances, ambitions and opportunities perhaps made the events of February 1704 nearly inevitable. I am grateful to Tilton Library for offering to show my paintings. - Jim Murphy jimmurphyfineart.com