Water, in particular, figures in water has been a favorite and recurring theme in my work. I paint quickly and directly with a spontaneous brushstroke that lends to the fluidity of water. The quickness of the brushwork captures the fleeting gestures of bathers creating an energy and movement within the work. Each painting grows from a mix of imagination, memory and a conviction that here is a person and place that strikes a universal note. A situation, a gesture, a mood that will resonate with the viewer.

Karen Bonanno                                                                                                                           b. 1968, New York, NY
Lives and works in Litchfield County, Connecticut                                                 karenbonanno.com | IG karen.bonanno.art

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS:                                                                                           2022 New Work (Two person), The Judy Black Park Gallery, Washington Depot, CT            2020 Configuring the Figure, Five Points Annex, Torrington, CT
New Work, The Hen’s Nest, Washington Depot, CT
2018 The Female Perspective, @287 Gallery, Danbury, CT                                                 2016 Figuratively, A&F Gallery, Danbury, CT
The Painted Figure, Duffy Gallery at Canterbury School, New Milford, CT   
2002 Three Women’s Perspective, Washington Art Association, Washington, CT

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS:

2023 No Stranger Among Us – Alofft Gallery, Litchfield, CT

Summer Show – Georgetown Arts & Culture, CT

A View of Humanity – Five Points Gallery, Torrington, CT
2022 Small Works Juried Show – Juror: Douglas Hyland, Five Points Gallery, Torrington, CT                                                    2020 Small Works Juried Show – Juror: Power Boothe, Five Points Gallery, Torrington, CT 2019 Small Works Juried Show – Juror: , Five Points Gallery, Torrington, CT
2017 In Retrospect, A&F Gallery, Danbury, CT                                                                                    Small Works on Paper Invitational, Blue Mountain Gallery, NYC                                   End Works, @287 Gallery, Danbury, CT
2016 Small Works on Paper Invitational, Blue Mountain Gallery, NYC                           Thoughts of Summer, A&F Gallery, Danbury, CT
Members Show, Washington Art Association, Washington, CT
8th National Juried Show – Juror: Graham Nickson, Prince Street Gallery, NYC LOCALworks, Gallery at Still River Editions, Danbury, CT                                           2015 Juried Show (second place prize), Gallery 25, New Milford, CT
The Art of Painting, National Juried Show – Juror: William Bailey, Washington, CT         2014 6th National Juried Show – Juror: Lois Dodd, Prince Street Gallery, NYC                    2009 Members Show, Washington Art Association, Washington, CT
2002 Alumni Exhibition, Western Connecticut State University, Danbury, CT                       1996 Young Talent, Washington Art Association, Washington, CT

EDUCATION:
Western Connecticut State University, B.A. – Fine Art/Painting, 1993                                 Vermont Studio Center, 1993

Water is an important element in much of my work, but The Fluid World is all water. This series is of smaller bodies of fresh water, as opposed to the sea. There are ponds, pools, fountains and waterfalls, which show a great variety of color, form and movement. When I see a pond or pool with beautiful light and interesting forms, I am compelled to take a photograph. Other elements, apart from the water, can have a strong effect on the appearance. The container, as in Blaze, produces the red and green colors through the aging and oxidizing copper background. Pools often have a painted bottom (Yellow Tiles) which changes the color of the water. One of the most beautiful qualities of water is the reflections and the distortions caused by the bending of light rays.  There are infinite ways that water can be seen in these pools and ponds, depending on so many variables, but in the end – the light, always the light.

Bio:

Phyllis Crowley grew up in New Yor City and started photographing when she was eleven years old. Her father, an enthusiastic amateur, wanted someone to go scouting around Manhattan with him and bought her a twin lens reflex camera. She learned by taking pictures, looking at pictures, experimenting, attending workshops and reading everything she could get her hands on. She began her career working with film in a traditional black and white darkroom. Never one to love working in the dark with messy chemicals, she eagerly moved on to color and digital. The new technology made it much faster and easier to work with multiple images, different formats, and move between color and black and white. One of the most rewarding aspects of photography for Crowley has been her teaching career, which began many years ago and continues to this day. She is very devoted to her students and feels a strong obligation to pass on what she has learned to those in her classes. At this stage in her life, she is also focusing on books as a unique way to preserve her favorite works.

My paintings are an amalgam of abstraction, actual and imagined places, and recollections. I like to paint on a larger scale to feel I am in the painting. The limited space of a smaller canvas interests me in that I confront the challenge of wanting to make the work feel big. I do a lot of drawing, using various mediums on paper, often in tandem with works on canvas. The visual conversation happening between paintings and drawings turns off the inner voice that gets in the way of painting.

I am at home by the water and am taken in by vast expanses, but I also enjoy an urban setting and a city skyline. I like to combine the feelings, structures, light, and space inspired by nature with those of man-made environments for a meeting of both worlds.

In my work I want to capture what is compelling about a location or setting while asking what’s this place about? How do I convey, for example, the energy in the moment of a breaking wave? How do I interpret the embrace of darkness? There is often a sense of longing in my paintings. I’m in the moment, but drift off wanting to be somewhere else. Our minds constantly travel and paintings can transport us to familiar and unfamiliar places. For me, the color blue elicits and reflects emotions. It represents sky and water — constants in changing landscapes and life cycles – and blue conjures up wanderlust.

The process of painting is a continuous search for the truth. When I paint, I want to travel to new places in the ultramarines and foggy grays, in bright light reflections, and in shadows.  I want the work to be alive and I invite the viewer to enter the paintings.

Emilia Dubicki’s paintings are primarily abstract, but sometimes representational imagery is integrated into the work where sense of scale, structural forms, and light are of special interest. In the paintings, observations from natural and urban surroundings mix with invention, recollections, and ideas inspired by music, poetry, and visual arts.

Emilia has received artist residency invitations from the I-Park Foundation, the Vermont Studio Center, the Pouchcove Foundation, and the Wurlitzer Foundation. She exhibits her work nationally and has also exhibited in Italy, Japan and South Korea. Her paintings are in private, public and corporate collections domestically and abroad. She has been commissioned by Nordstrom, Inc. to make large paintings for their stores around the U.S and Canada, most recently for the flag ship store in New York city where four paintings were installed.

Emilia earned her M.F.A. in Creative Writing and Literature from Emerson College. She lives and works in the Morris Cove neighborhood of New Haven, Connecticut and  is represented  by the AM Art House Gallery in Bantam, CT.

Artist Statement

​”The rhythm of the waves marks time, like the breath. Moment to moment, it’s intensity fluctuates, like emotion. ​Thoughts linger and pass, like a veil of fog.”

The shore provides a place for contemplation, inspiration and reflection. My practice fluctuates between plein air and painting in the studio. I bring my experiences outdoors back into the studio, interpreting the smells, sounds, feelings, and energy of the elements. The process is fluid, moving between freedom and control, accident and intention, as I push and pull the paint to translate my visual and emotional experiences of a subject-in-motion.’

“Annie’s work is extremely expressive and somewhat abstract when standing up close and remarkably realistic when viewed from a distance. No matter the scale, her remarkable seascapes remind us to be present. “. – Shari Weschler, Gallery Director, Chuchwood Gallery

Originally from the UK, Annie moved to New York City in the late 90’s working a career in PR, design and marketing with the British Government. In 2006 she enrolled at the New York Academy of Art for her MFA. She later moved to Long Island as Artist-in-Residence at the William Steeple Davis House and began a steady art practice. This is where the sea tugged at her soul and she immersed herself in studying and painting waves.

With many other unique opportunities along the way, such as studio assistant to master print-maker Dan Welden she eventually landed in Mystic, Connecticut, in 2011. Annie opened her business with a studio at the Velvet Mill. In 2020, life shifted again and she settled down in the coastal town of Westerly in the Ocean State of Rhode Island. In December 2022, Annie joined forces with photographer Michael Fanelli and together, they opened AiR Studio & Gallery, in downtown Westerly.

Wildey’s work has exhibited both nationally and internationally, in commercial galleries and venues which include:  The National Museum of China: The Mall Galleries, London, UK; The Heckscher Museum, NY, Southampton Art Center, NY and The University of Connecticut. With a total of sixteen solos, one hundred and sixty seven group exhibitions and sixteen curated shows under her belt, she is a well-seasoned professional.