The Fine Arts Gallery at Landmark College will host an artist reception for the “Forest Composition” exhibit on Friday, November 11 from 5-7 p.m.
“Forest Composition” is a multimedia exhibition with works by Brantner DeAtley, Betsey Garand and Gina Siepel. The works by these three artists explore themes of nature and environment, our place within it and our human connection to it.
Landmark College Associate Professor of Fine Art and Gallery Director Samuel Rowlett says the exhibit is inspired by shinrin-yoku, the Japanese practice of “forest bathing”, and the health and wellness benefits of spending time interacting with the natural world and nature’s ability to counteract some of the effects of the “technostress” of our increasingly digital world.
“Since the pandemic, studies have shown that many of us are spending more and more time looking at screens, and less and less time outdoors in nature,” Rowlett says. “One of the goals of this exhibition is to bring a little bit of the “outside-in” especially as we approach the time of the year when we traditionally retreat inside.”
The exhibit will remain on display through January 23, 2023. The gallery is open 10-6 p.m. daily.
The Landmark College Fine Arts Gallery is located in the Fine Arts Building on the Landmark College campus. For directions and a campus map, please visit www.landmark.edu and click the “Map and Directons” link at the bottom of the page.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Brantner DeAtley’s richly textured landscape paintings and drawings present views of the forested landscape surrounding his New England farm. DeAtley’s detailed and densely packed compositions capture the almost overwhelming fecundity of the natural world; every surface comes alive upon close looking. His striking brushstrokes appear to crawl across his canvases, making the trees move Ent-like across the landscapes of his uncanny worlds
Betsey Garand’s colorful prints seem to reveal a world beyond the naked eye: perhaps the goings-on in a drop of pond water viewed under a microscope, or the wild unseen interactions of flora and fauna underpinning an ecosystem. Garand’s “Continuum” series are delightfully unfixed in their scale. It is refreshingly unclear whether we are observing seed pods, flagellates, microbes, macroinvertebrates and other life forms from our own world or from one of Garand’s imagining.
Gina Siepel’s two video pieces, part of her multidisciplinary project entitled “To Understand a Tree”, document the same red oak tree during both the passing of a day and the passing of a year. As a woodworker and artist Siepel set out to better know the origins of her materials, and the life of a tree before it becomes wood. Siepel’s two videos not only provide viewers with a opportunity view this tree in its natural habitat, but also encourage the viewer to consider their place in the natural world through the sounds and sights of the passing of time in the forest.
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Image Credit:
Gina Siepel
To Understand a Tree (Time): One Year
Digital Video (montage of video stills pictured)
Duration: 35 minutes (looped)
2021
