RiverWinds Gallery @ Wells Fargo Advisors, LLC

6423 Montgomery Street (Route 9), Suite 10 (2^nd Flr.), Rhinebeck, NY,Hours: Monday – Friday 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. or by appointment.

Our current show is below - click on the above years to see previous shows

Flora: A Group Art Exhibit - July 27 - October 24, 2010

Artist Reception at Wells Fargo Advisors, Montgomery Row, 2nd Floor, Rhinebeck, NY,  September 18, 2010, 5-7 p.m.
Wells Fargo Advisors hours: 9-5 M-F or by appointment.

Wells Fargo Advisors, of Montgomery Row on Route 9 in Rhinebeck and RiverWinds Gallery of 172 Main Street, Beacon, open their new show on July 27, Flora, featuring a strong collection of floral images by a group of accomplished painters and photographers.

Artists include:  Nicholas Bouteneff, oil; Sandy Brandman, pastel: Jeanne Demotses, watercolor; Michael Garland, oil; Mary Ann Glass, photography; Theresa Gooby, mixed media; Linda Hubbard, photography; Alexis Lynch, mixed media and watercolor; Basha Maryanska, acrylic; Esther McHenry, oil; Rita Pignato, photography; and Neela Pushparaj, watercolor; Mary Evelyn Whitehill, watercolor.

'These images range from classical floral still life to more modern macro views.  Each evokes a different emotion from nostalgia to discovery and excitement’, says Virginia Donovan of RiverWinds Gallery, who curated the show.

An artist's reception will be held at Wells Fargo Advisors on September 18, 2010, from 5-7 p.m. The Wells Fargo Advisors office is located on the 2nd floor of Montgomery Row in downtown Rhinebeck.  The art may be purchased through RiverWinds Gallery, 845-838-2880, www.RiverWindsGallery.com.

here is a sampling of the images.....

Nicholas Bouteneff - oil

Nicolas Bouteneff is essentially a self taught artist. Love of nature, a passion for the colors, and the desire to capture the beauty of spaces around him, have put him in a deeper search for creativity and inspiration on dynamics of light. He grew up in France on a farm. Walking to school with his brother in all different seasons, they crossed many lovely orchards, pastures, woods, and streams. During summers, they went climbing in the Alps, swimming in the Atlantic Ocean near Biarritz, or visiting the center of France, which remains much as it has been during the medieval ages. This exposure to the outdoors gave him a profound attachment of all aspects of nature. Repeated visits to major galleries in various capitals in Europe and the US, taught him to appreciate the creativity of the great masters. He attended a studio under the guide of Shishka Bogush in London for a year. He also took art courses at the City University of New York. He paints mostly landscapes en plein air in oils, but occasionally he may shift to watercolors and acrylics. He is very active with the Plein Air Painters of New York of which he is a member. He attended a week long workshop with Stephen Quiller, in Acadia, Main. Currently, he attends the Art Students League in NY, under Gregg Kreutz.

Sandy Brandman - pastel

Born in coastal Santa Cruz, California, Sandy now calls the scenic Hudson Valley her home. Sandy Brandman received her degree in Art History and Music at Empire State University of New York. She has worked in the music industry for over 30 years as a music copyist and editor in both New York City and San Francisco. Her acclaims include copying music scores for major motion pictures such as Altered States and Fame. The revised score of Broadway’s production of Pirates of Penzance starring Linda Ronstadt, as well as working for the American Ballet Theater and the San Francisco Opera Company. As an editor, she has repaired musical scores in the archival departments of G. Schirmer, Boosey & Hawkes, and Oxford University Press. Her many talents include viola and violin performance in numerous symphonic and chamber groups throughout the Hudson Valley and beyond. Additionally, she serves as a dedicated member on the executive board of the Hudson Opera Theatre of New York, as well as a full time chorus mezzo-soprano. Her passion for music has inspired her love of painting still lifes, portraits and landscapes of the Hudson Valley. Sandy also had opportunity to paint landscapes in scenic County Clare, Ireland, and in Tuscany, Italy. Her paintings have sold internationally as well as in the United States. Sandy’s art is inspired by the glorious Hudson Valley she often paints; subtly beautiful, yet stately and elegant.

Jean Demostes - watercolor

My work encompasses many modes of expression. Media such as oil, watercolor, pastel, collage, monotype as well as the hand made papers I make, are used in tandem. I do not choose the medium to work in so much as the piece dictates the medium to be used.Iconic imagery often informs my work. In that instance, I find producing hand made papers important in conveying the symbolic nature of the piece. At other times, the abstract nature of the work may require mixing media to produce the ‘felt’ experience.Working in many media and in many styles including figurative or realist has given me the gift of wide ranging exploration. It has also allowed me to bring a certain freshness to each new piece I begin by forcing me to think in terms of the requirements of each new medium and not to think about the end ‘product’.

Michael Garland - oil

Michael Garland is an internationally known artist illustrator and author working in a wide array of styles for a varied group of clients. His work has appeared on the covers and inside magazines like Forbes, Fortune and Newsweek. He has illustrated everything from postage stamps to billboards. Michael Garland’s gallery paintings have been featured in two issues of American Artist Magazine. His art hangs in many private and corporate collections. Garland has also earned a reputation as renowned portrait painter.Garland has worked for CBS NBC and ABC and many others in the entertainment field. His illustrations have appeared in and on books for every major publishing house.But Michael Garland’s greatest success has been for writing and illustrating children's picture books. Garland’s Miss Smith’s Incredible Storybook recently won the California and Delaware State Reading Awards. He is currently working on his twenty-fifth book as author and illustrator. Garland has illustrated for celebrity authors like James Patterson and Gloria Estefan on best selling books. Michael Garland’s illustrations for Patterson’s SantaKid were the inspiration for Sak’s Fifth’s Avenue’s Christmas holiday window display in New York City. His work has won many honors and is frequently included in the Society of Illustrators and the Original Art of Children's book show as well annuals from Print, Graphis and Communications Arts magazines. Recently, Michael Garland was included on the list of the top one hundred Irish Americans by Irish American Magazine. Garland’s newest book, Miss Smith and the Haunted Library made the New York Times Best Seller list.

Mary Ann Glass - photography

Theresa Gooby - mixed media

My first New York winter was a harsh shock to me, a person who has spent most of my life living on the west coast. It was cold, dreary and ugly compared to San Francisco. As I walked through the gray streets of New York in the dregs of winter every day I tried to find something visually interesting to keep me going. I noticed that the bare winter trees appeared to be like living drawings. They are simple colorless line drawings that exist in a three dimensional space. Each one followed the same system of nature but each one was uniquely different. One branch splits off into another into another. I began to study the trees like artworks. I would draw trees according to the system I observed; studying the trees as drawings became a calming exercise. I looked forward to finding new trees to examine on my daily walks. Now I make photographs of these living drawings, then turn them into transparencies using an artists’ material. Once a tree has been turned into a transparency, I adhere it to a wooden block that has been painted. When they are done I let them sit together on the floor of my studio and ruminate on them until two or sometimes three will seem to belong together. Many of the choices I make with color and size of each piece involves some random chance. Wood is either found or donated to me by a woodworker from their scrap pile. I aim to choose colors that reflect how I feel about the seasons but sometimes I mix colors that I cannot replicate no matter how hard I try.

I call these “Drawings of Trees” because I am honoring the tree as a simple inspiration for a world of art. One of the first things we draw with crayons is a tree. It is he beginning of art. Nature is often the entry to understanding art.

Linda T. Hubbard - photography

Linda T. Hubbard is a photographer known throughout the Hudson River Valley and her native New England.  "I love to capture the beauty, peace and serenity of nature - the sunlight on the mountains, the incredible detail of a flower, the glorious colors of the sun setting over the river. I also love to include an element of architecture, a chair, something that states how humans and nature interrelate" Her photographs bring back memories of a favorite place or a time of joy and happiness. They take you to a places that you would like to be, a season that warms and cheers you, or a peaceful setting that soothes your soul. The photographs can enhance your home or office, be a special gift for various occasions or be a remembrance of a special place.

Alexis Lynch - watercolor and mixed media

Alexis Lynch’s sense of the Hudson River Valley’s beauty guides her in creating her paintings of the skies, mountain and the river. Her palette comes from nature and the softness of her recent paintings adds a dreamy quality, as if such a place could not really exist. A resident of Fishkill, New York, She took up painting in the 1990’s in watercolor, enjoying the freshness of the medium. She has recently started working in pastel and egg tempra. Alexis also known for her handmade cards - using ribbons, nature and paintings.

Basha Maryanska - acrylic

I paint mysterious landscapes, using luscious, rich layers of paint, deep glazes to create three- dimensionality and dramatic light and it is all derived from memory, imagination, feelings and emotions, sketches, occasionally life and various travels. To me the vibration of the color and texture have a significant role in painting. Although my images sometimes appear to be abstract, they are all clearly recognizable as landscape and the portrait of the nature. I actually use landscape motifs to paint my feelings and emotions. I portray light and air with its magic transparency.

Esther McHenry - oil

Esther graduated from Pratt Institute with a degree in art. Over a lifetime’s passion with art in different styles & media, painterly realism in oils has emerged as the consistent theme. The challenge of using paints to convey light and mood keeps her striving to improve technique and reach for new subjects in still life and plein air landscape. Esther lives in a cottage in Putnam Valley, NY with her terrier Bette. Currently Esther is teaching oil painting at Mt. St. Mary College Desmond campus in Newburgh N.Y.

Rita Pignato - photography

“As far back as I can remember, flowers have always been a part of my life. My family and I lived with my Nonna who was an avid gardener. Her yard in Brooklyn was a sacred haven, and I can clearly remember the fences she built out of scraps of wood to keep me and my brother out of her flower beds. “My journey into photography began in college. While studying Art and Advertising Desingm, the camera became my voice: it was my paint brush and creative tool. After college I continued to take classes in color and black and white photography, but then, my everyday life in the corporate world started to take over my free time.” During this hiatus from full-time photography, something inside me longed for a creative outlet. Attending a show became a turning point in my life and there was no going back. My focus in photography is on landscape, flowers, architecture, fine art, travel, people and the art of printing.”

Neela Pushparaj - watercolor

Dr. Neela Pushparaj is a retired Pathologist who has been doing watercolor paintings for more than fourteen years. What started as an escape from the morbid specialty of pathology very soon evolved into an avid avocation. She has attended du' Cret School of Art in Plainfield, NJ, on a part-time basis and also participated in several workshops conducted by nationally renowned artists such as Barbara Nechis, Frank Webb and Pat Billeci. Most of her paintings have been shown in galleries in the Hudson Valley as she worked there for over ten years. The Heritage Art Gallery and the Two Thorne Gallery at St. Francis Hospital were the main venues for her art work. She was also instrumental in starting the gallery at St. Francis Hospital. Her work has also been shown at the Madison Gallery, Morristown Memorial Hospital, Morristown, NJ and Reeves-Reed Arboretum in Summit, NJ. Neela is a member of the New Jersey Center for Visual Arts in Summit, NJ and the Kent Art Association in Kent, CT. Neela's work has been accepted at juried shows at the Kent Art Association, NJCVA and the Heritage Art Gallery. She has won awards at the art show run by the Friends of the Newburgh Library, Newburgh, NY.
"Painting is an integral part of my life. It is an expression of my joy in everything I see."

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Mary Evelyn Whitehil - watercolor

Mary prefers working on site or "plein air", from the French phrase "en pleine aire" meaning in fresh air.
The outdoor experience is sometimes frustrating because of wind, insects, interruptions from other people, the constantly changing light etc. The rewards outweigh these inconveniences. While you are working all your senses are heightened. You can hear the songs of the birds, hum of insects, music of the trickling stream. You smell the delicious scents of new mown hay, flowers and herbs, pine trees or the salty air of the ocean. You have a constantly moving panorama of clouds, shadow shapes, other people going about their work and you notice minute details of rocks, flora and fauna. Being able to reach out and touch the natural world lifts you to another level of joy.