The Olana Partnership 2013 Frederic E. Church Award Gala

Our forthcoming advertisement in Olana’s 2013 Frederic E. Church Award Gala Journal

Hawthorne Fine Art is pleased to announce The Olana Partnership 2013 Frederic E. Church Award Gala, which will be held on Thursday, May 23 at the New York Public Library. The honorees at this year’s Gala are Elizabeth Broun, The Margaret and Terry Stent Director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and Stephen Hannock, acclaimed contemporary landscape painter. The work of these two individuals has brought the study and appreciation of American art to great prominence and embodies the Gala’s celebration of the Extraordinary American Landscape.

Musical artist and art collector Sting, with his wife, Trudie Styler, and acclaimed artist, Christo, will present the awards to the honorees.

Elizabeth Broun is being honored for her significant influence in expanding an understanding of American art during her 30-year tenure with the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM). During her tenure, the museum has developed a significant national education program, and has become a leader in distance learning, Web-based resources, and new media. As director during a $283 million renovation of the SAAM’s historic landmark building, she championed the creation of and secured funding for several innovative new public spaces, including the first art conservation facility that allows the public permanent behind-the-scenes views of the preservation work of museums, and the only visible art storage and study center in Washington, D.C. with thousands of artworks on public display.

Stephen Hannock is an important contemporary landscape painter inspired by the works and philosophies of the Hudson River School, whose work hangs in many of the country’s most important museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the National Gallery of Art. In addition, Stephen’s work is in numerous private collections. Not only does his work often directly reference 19th century paintings and locales, but also important landscapes and issues of today, particularly environmental concerns.

Because of her commitment to building collections of American landscape painting and producing scholarly publications, Jennifer Krieger is among the members of The Olana Partnership’s Landscape/Viewshed Advisory Committee. The Olana Partnership supports the conservation, preservation, development and improvement of the Olana State Historic Site, which is open to the public throughout the year. Its goal is to inspire the public by preserving and interpreting Olana, and to create the most widely recognized artist’s home and studio in the world, vibrant with the activity of students, visitors and scholars.

We hope you will join us in honoring the work Elizabeth Broun and Stephen Hannock, and in celebrating the Extraordinary American Landscape. Please see below for further details and to RSVP.

Event: The Olana Partnership- Frederic E. Church Award Dinner

Date: Thursday, May 23, 2013

Location: New York Public Library, Celeste Bartos Forum – New York City
5th Avenue and 42nd Street

Time: 7pm Cocktails
8pm Dinner, Awards, and Live Auction

Tickets: Tickets can be purchased starting at $1,500. To purchase tickets contact Cailin Fitzgerald at (212) 921-9070 ext. 11 or email: olana@thejfmgroup.com

Attire: Black Tie

 

In addition, to view benefit auctions, please follow the link below:

http://olana.org/pdf/StephenHannockAuctionItemNiagara.pdf

Hawthorne Fine Art Hosts Gathering of Bermuda Luminaries

On Tuesday, January 8th, over 75 friends and members of the Bermuda National Gallery gathered at Hawthorne Fine Art for a reception and private viewing of our current exhibition, Isles of Tranquility: Paintings of Bermuda by Clark Greenwood Voorhees (1871-1933). Guests included His Excellency the Governor, The Hon. George Fergusson and Mrs. Fergusson; and Premier, The Hon. Craig Cannonier, JP MP and Mrs. Cannonier; as well as Bermuda National Gallery Executive Director, Lisa Howie; Founding Trustee, Dr. Charles Zuill; and Tucker Hewes, President of the Bermuda Fine Arts Foundation. During the course of the evening, the Governor and The Premier both delivered speeches. Additional speeches were given by Jennifer C. Krieger, Managing Partner of Hawthorne Fine Art; Gary L. Phillips OBE JP, Chairman of the Bermuda National Gallery and Franklin Hill Perrell, Trustee of the Bermuda National Gallery. Also in attendance were Bermuda’s Minister of Finance, The Hon. Everard ‘Bob’ Richards JP, MP; and Minister of Economic Development, Dr. the Hon. E. Grant Gibbons JP, MP.

 

Jennifer Krieger standing with His Excellency the Governor of Bermuda, The Hon. George Fergusson; Premier, The Hon. Craig Cannonier, JP MP; and Gary L. Phillips OBE JP

Mr. Gary L. Phillips, OBE JP; Mrs. Margaret Fergusson; Governor, The Hon. George Fergusson; Ms. Helen Clark; Mrs. Tricia Phillips; Minister, The Hon. Bob Richards

This exhibition, which runs through January 18, 2012, is only the second full-scale show of the artist’s work in three decades. Kept largely private by a sprawling family of artists and intellectuals, the paintings of Clark Voorhees have very rarely been exhibited in public. Beginning in 1919, Voorhees and a small group of fellow Old Lyme artists began to spend their winters in Bermuda, where the artist purchased a house that he named “Tranquility.” The lush, nuanced studies he produced there reflect Voorhees’s life-long interest in the natural sciences, as thoughtfully observed in Dr. Edward Harris’s review of the exhibition in the December 15^th edition of The Royal Gazette. Dr. Harris praised the work as being “not only of artistic value,” but also “of significance to the historian and archaeologist, and indeed the natural scientist, for the artist captured the nature of the place, but without any intention that an historic state was being embedded in ink and paint on his canvas.”

For this and other reasons, the exhibition is very much representative of the interests of the gallery and Jennifer Krieger, who is known for uncovering hidden treasures of American art and incorporating them into carefully curated exhibitions. Isles of Tranquility includes 20 paintings of Bermuda landscapes by Voorhees all of which have been kept in the hands of the family and are available for viewing and for sale for the first time.

Other paintings by the artist are on display in the collections of the Wadsworth Athenaeum Museum of Art, Yale University Art Gallery, the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, CT, and the Chicago Union League Club.

We hope you will be able to visit Isles of Tranquility at  74 East 79^th Street between Park and Madison Avenues before the close of the exhibition on January 18th. Additionally, please feel free to browse the online PDF version of the catalogue, or contact us to request a hard copy.

An Interview with Jennifer Krieger

We’re excited to announce that an interview with Jennifer Krieger, Managing Partner of Hawthorne Fine Art, was featured on the blog of Leslie Rankow Fine Arts Ltd, a New York-based art advisory firm specializing in contemporary, modern, and American art. This interview touches on the origins of Hawthorne Fine Art, the gallery’s recent expansion to an additional space in Irvington, NY, and the difficult decisions involved in selecting acquisitions. Read the full interview here!

Jennifer Krieger, Managing Partner of Hawthorne Fine Art, LLC.

Hawthorne Fine Art Opens “Isles of Tranquility”

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On Saturday, December 8, Hawthorne Fine Art held an opening event for Isles of Tranquility: Paintings of Bermuda by Clark Greenwood Voorhees, 1871–1933. Our latest exhibition features brilliant representations of the Bermuda islands completed by the artist during his annual winter visits, which began in 1919.

Works on view range from intimate nature studies, to grand views of vibrant blue ocean and sky. Voorhees was known for his dual interest in science and art, and expressed this fascination with nature and botany through careful study of the trees, atmosphere, and environment of Bermuda. His depictions of the abundant Bermuda cedar trees express the vitality of nature through the illusion of rustling movement amid the branches. However, the artist also captured a number of buildings in his paintings, including his own home and studio in Somerset, which he named “Tranquility.”

Isles of Tranquility has already caught the attention of both residents and frequent visitors of Bermuda. Dr. Edward Harris, Executive Director of the National Museum at Dockyard, Bermuda, attended the exhibition opening on Saturday and has written an illuminating article for his Heritage Matters series. “Voorhees’s Isles of Tranquility” thoughtfully discusses the artist’s island paintings in the context of the history of art, artists, and tourists in Bermuda.

Isles of Tranquility is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue, available in PDF form on the Hawthorne Fine Art website. The exhibition will be on view Tuesdays through Fridays, 10:00am to 5:00pm, until January 18, 2013.

An Artist’s Process: A Painting Demonstration by Lauren Sansaricq

Lauren Sansaricq (b.1991), whose landscape paintings are inspired by the artists of the Hudson River School and are represented by Hawthorne Fine Art, recently performed an exciting artist demonstration at the Alva de Mars Megan Chapel Art Center at Saint Anselm College, where her work is on exhibit until December 6, 2012.

Lauren Sansaricq, Winter Afternoon, View of Carter Notch, NH. Oil on canvas, 14 x 19 in.

This event featured one of Lauren’s hauntingly beautiful nocturnal scenes illuminated by a pulsing full moon, and demonstrated the process of drawing, underpainting, and the final glazing. She selected a nocturnal scene in order to show the clear transition from underpainting to a richer finished image once glazing is complete. After drawing out her composition, Lauren spent time building up the primarily monochromatic underpainting—often called the dead color stage. The choice of a nocturnal scene, according to Lauren, was successful in revealing the importance of determining the tonal values of the whole image in relation to the drawn arrangement. Lauren began painting concentric circles outward from the central full moon, deepening the color and warmth of the pigment as she progressed. Fr. Iain MacLellan, Director of the Chapel Art Center, noted that visitors were especially amazed by the quickness with which Lauren transformed pigment from her brush into naturalistic form, as if by magic! He stated that Lauren’s “apparent learnedness and deftness with pigments and brush” were especially impressive and exciting for viewers.

Lauren Sansaricq, View of Mt. Washington from the Saco River, 2012. Oil on artist’s board, 10 x 16 in.

Since the underpainting must dry before glazes can be applied, Lauren had prepared another panel ahead of time with the same composition in order to show visitors how to glaze a painting. As Lauren explained, glazing uses thin layers of transparent paint to enhance the colors and shadows of a painting in a way that creates richness but preserves the lightness or freshness of the paint.

This impressive demonstration provided an illuminating experience for visitors not only into the technical aspect of creating a painting and the extensive care and work that goes into each image, but also the intense emotional part of Lauren’s work. Fr. Iain mentioned that the demonstration revealed “the real purity of intent on the part of the artist. [Lauren] relayed in a quiet and forthright way… the fullness of the experiences she has had with the almost unsurpassable beauty of the brilliant moon at night.” One visitor’s question, which the artist found particularly inspiring, was in regard to the spiritual quality of her work. The visitor asked how Lauren’s technique enhanced this spiritual feeling. Lauren responded that her glazing technique and scumbling (glazing with a more opaque paint) would help call a viewer’s attention to one particular element of the painting. This element, as Lauren says, “should tell a story of the journey we are all on for enlightenment and ultimately the Truth.”

Lauren Sansaricq, View of Mt. Madison from the Androscoggin River, 2012. Oil on artist’s board, 7 ½ x 14 in.

Lauren’s technical prowess and reverence for nature as conveyed through painting reflect the ideals expressed by the nineteenth century American landscape painters of the Hudson River School. While the demonstration is especially significant for its illumination of Lauren’s own working process and personal connection to the subjects she depicts, it also reveals the important techniques, pigments, and types of brushes used by historic artists. This very special event, which so brilliantly supplemented the exhibition of her work, The Glimmer of Light, “became a living metaphor for how to enlighten others,” said Fr. Iain, and “how to bring light out of darkness with materials, methods, perception, and memory.”

Lauren Sansaricq, Autumn Afternoon. Oil on artist’s board, 8 x 12 in.

In addition to Lauren’s demonstration, the exhibition at Saint Anselm College was recently supplemented with a lecture by David Dearinger, Susan Morse Hilles Curator of Paintings & Sculpture at the Boston Athenaeum. Dr. Dearinger’s talk introduced the Hudson River School, focusing on the development of the art movement through the careers of three major artists—Thomas Cole, Asher B. Durand, and Frederic Church—all of whom found painting subjects and artistic inspiration in the Hudson River Valley and Catskill Mountains of New York State.

Lauren Sansaricq, View of the Mt. Washington Valley, 2012. Oil on artist’s board, 8 ¼ x 15 ¼ in.

The Glimmer of Light: Landscape Paintings by Lauren Sansaricq will be on view at the Alva de Mars Megan Chapel Art Center at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, NH, until December 6^th. We hope you will have an opportunity to visit the exhibition! To enjoy more of Lauren’s paintings, please view the PDF catalogue of the artist’s previous exhibition at Hawthorne Fine Art, Nature’s Poetry.

Lauren Sansaricq, Snow Scene in Jackson N.H., 2011. Oil on artist’s board, 6 1/4 x 4 in.

Isles of Tranquility: Paintings of Bermuda by Clark Greenwood Voorhees (1871-1933)

As the weather gets colder, Hawthorne Fine Art will be dreaming of the warm climate of paradise! From December 8 to January 18, we will be exhibiting paintings, drawings, and watercolors by Clark Greenwood Voorhees that capture the landscape and colors of Bermuda. Isles of Tranquility: Paintings of Bermuda by Clark Greenwood Voorhees (1871-1933) is only the second full-scale show of the artist’s work in three decades.

In 1919, Clark Voorhees visited Bermuda for the first time, accompanied by other artists from the Old Lyme Art Colony. He and his wife, Maud, eventually purchased a home in Somerset, which they called “Tranquility,” and returned to the islands every winter. Located in Sandy’s Parish, the western-most of nine Parishes in Bermuda, Somerset (and “Tranquility”) was within reach of numerous beaches and other sites. The Royal Navy Dockyard, painted by Voorhees, is located at the northern tip of Sandy’s Parish, while Church Bay is located in nearby Southampton Parish.

Looking Toward the Dockyard, Somerset (Click to enlarge)

Church Bay, (Click to enlarge)

Like in New England, Voorhees depicted examples of typical Bermudian architecture. Springfield Courtyard by Moonlight depicts a 1740s mansion in typical plantation architectural style. The white walls and roof made a perfect canvas on which Voorhees experimented with light and shadow.

Springfield Courtyard by Moonlight (Click to enlarge)

Having received Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Chemistry, Voorhees demonstrated a lifelong interest in science. After changing careers to become a full-time artist, he continued to take a scientific interest in the landscapes he painted, coming into direct contact with nature through avid bicycling. In Bermuda, Voorhees explored the islands on his “wheel” and produced images that captured the jewel-like colors of the location, the juxtaposition of land and sea, and the varieties of trees (cedar and papaya) that he encountered.

Somerset Parish—Islands with Cottage (Click to enlarge)

Cedar Trees at Whale Bay [located in Southampton Parish] (Click to enlarge)

Rock with Water (Click to enlarge)

Over the course of his career, Voorhees’s painting style developed from Barbizon-inspired Tonalism to Impressionism, following the course taken by the Lyme Art Colony. Voorhees continued to experiment with Tonalism and Impressionism using the brilliant atmosphere and variety of colors to further explore his already developed techniques.

Isles of Tranquility is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue, which includes an essay titled, “Impressions of Paradise: Clark Greenwood Voorhees in Bermuda,” and reproductions of the works in the exhibition. We look forward to sharing this catalogue with you, and hope you will join us at Hawthorne Fine Art to view the exhibition!

The Glimmer of Light: A New Exhibition of Lauren Sansaricq’s Landscape Paintings at Saint Anselm College

Hawthorne Fine Art is pleased to announce an exhibition of Lauren Sansaricq’s landscape paintings at the Alva de Mars Megan Chapel Art Center at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire. The Glimmer of Light: Landscape Paintings by Lauren Sansaricq will run from September 28 to December 6, 2012, and an opening reception for the exhibition will be held on Thursday, September 27 from 6:00 to 8:00pm.

Lauren Sansaricq, Mt. Chocorua, 2012 (click to enlarge)

The Chapel Art Center has recently featured examples of American landscape painting, as well as local and emerging artists. A native of Columbia County, New York, Lauren Sansaricq (b.1990) trained with Thomas Locker (1937–2012), a celebrated landscape painter and children’s book author/illustrator, in the traditional manner of the Hudson River School. Sansaricq’s work captures a similar sense of wonder experienced by the nineteenth century landscape painters working primarily in New York’s Catskill Mountain region. As Jennifer Krieger explains, “Lauren is a tireless technician who can hone in on the most subtle details of nature within its grandest views. She demonstrates an artistic prowess and commitment to faithful design which is not only rare for her age but also uncommon for the age in which we live.” Like the first generation of Hudson River School painters, Sansaricq has also proven herself to be a true artist-explorer. She has broadened the scope of her work to include locations outside the Hudson Valley, including the White Mountains of New Hampshire and locations in France and Italy.

In conjunction with this special exhibition, numerous special events have been planned. David Dearinger, Ph.D., Susan Morse Hilles Curator of Paintings and Sculpture at The Boston Athenaeum, will present “The Hudson River School: An Introduction” on Thursday, November 8 at 4:00pm. This lecture will provide a scholar’s insight into the significance of America’s first indigenous art movement, offering an important supplement to Ms. Sansaricq’s meditative and technically rigorous paintings.

Additionally, Fr. MacLellan will be leading a director’s tour of the exhibition at 1:00pm on Saturday, October 20. On Thursday, October 25 at 4:00pm, Ms. Sansaricq will discuss the subject matter and technical practice that ties her work to historic American landscape painting, yet offers a fresh look at our landscape today. Lastly, a special music performance will feature American Romantic compositions performed by acclaimed pianist Alpin Hong on Friday, November 30 at 7:30pm.

Since the opening of Nature’s Poetry, held at Hawthorne Fine Art last winter, Lauren has completed her training at the Grand Central Academy in NYC. We’re excited for this next step in Lauren’s career and will be producing an exhibition catalogue for The Glimmer of Light illustrating her paintings. A PDF of the Nature’s Poetry catalogue is available on our website.

For further information about this exhibition and the related special events, please visit http://www.anselm.edu/chapelart.