POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. – Painter Eline Barclay has returned to the Albert Shahanian Fine Art for her biennial exhibition at the gallery with an exhibit entitled “Seasons of Light – New Paintings from Coastal Maine and the Hudson River.” The show runs through January 13.
According to gallery owner Albert Shahanian, Barclay is one of the Northeast’s most gifted representational painters. Her pastels and oils are spiritually charged. Favoring marshes, high points and dramatic vistas, her paintings radiate a primal, essential feeling for the landscape. In her work, the manmade is subservient to a natural world full of soft light and gentle highlights, drama without horror or disaster, power without overstatement.
Barclay grew up in Cornwall-on-Hudson, in the shadow of Storm King. The lure of the Hudson River and the outdoors have made indelible impressions on her artwork. Two years ago, in search of greater solitude and space, Barclay moved her Hudson Valley studio to an old farmhouse on the coast of Maine. The salt marshes and dramatic light of Down East Maine and the coast itself have provided new direction and focus to her work.
Barclay still travels to the Hudson Valley to explore and develop paintings based on her favorite locations there. “Seasons of Light” presents, for the first time, paintings from both geographic areas.
Whether depicting the classic view from Cadillac Mountain in Maine or Iona Marsh in the Hudson Highlands, the treatment of light and weather pays homage to the intrinsic beauty of the landscape unfettered by unnatural embellishments. Barclay has always been concerned with the atmospheric light of early morning and twilight and the effects of weather. Nearly all of her landscapes take place in these extremes of the day.
Albert Shahanian Fine Art, 198 Main Street, is open Thursday through Saturday, 1 to 6 pm, Sunday, 1 to 5 pm, and by appointment. For information, 845-454-0522.