The July exhibition of visual art at Richard Boyd Art Gallery is a study of contrasting styles from impressionism to realism and features a selection of original art created by artists from diverse backgrounds whose range of styles, choice of mediums, and color palette give them distinction in the visual arts community.

The exhibit is comprised of paintings by artists’ Deena S. Ball – watercolor; CR Bryant – oil; Patricia Chandler – oil and cold wax medium; Carrin Culotta – oil; Randy Eckard – dry-brush watercolor; Richard H. Eyster – dry-brush watercolor; Kristin Horton – oil; Kenneth Mancini- oil; Jen Pagnini- mixed media; and HM Saffer II – pointillist style oils.

If you like a specific style of painting, pointillism, abstracts, or traditional realism, you will see a painting in the exhibit that brings you in for a closer look. Stop in and relax while viewing a beautiful selection of paintings that inspire your creative soul.

Contrasts is open free charge from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily July 1st through July 30th, 2023. For more information about the exhibit contact the gallery by phone (207)-712-1097, email mailto:info@richardboydartgallery.com or visit the gallery’s website www.richardboydartgallery.com .

About The Artists

Deena S. Ball

Deena S. Ball is a nationally renowned landscape painter, known for her innovative use of watercolors in combination with textured ground and specialized surfaces. Her love of nature, science and art comes together when she paints en Plein Air.

Deena strives to create simple expressive paintings inspired by nature which capture a moment in time and strike an emotional chord with the viewer.

An active teaching artist for both adults and children, she is regularly invited to conduct workshops and presentations for artist’s organizations.  She holds a BA in Art History and Studio Art from Colby College in Waterville, Maine and continued her studies at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art and Tyler School of Art. 

Deena is a past president of the Philadelphia Watercolor Society, co-founder and Artistic Director of the non-profit LandArt Events, a signature member of Philadelphia Watercolor Society, Baltimore Watercolor Society, Pennsylvania Watercolor Society, and is a Pennsylvania Guild Master Craftsman.

Her paintings are exhibited throughout the Northeast and can be found in “Watercolor Artist” and several annual publications of “Splash.” 

C. R. Bryant

Internationally renowned Maine artist C. R. (Bob) Bryant has created Maritime art for more than 60 years. Following his service in Southeast Asia, his understanding and appreciation of visual arts was enriched while living in Europe and devoting considerable time in the world’s great art museums, living and painting in the footsteps of the old masters. 

Working primarily with oils he is a master of realism and well known for his realistic depiction of sailing vessels and water. He has a working knowledge of sailing ships and today is recognized as a leading international marine artist.

Relocating to the Pacific Northwest in 1988, his focus centered on preserving the rich Marine history of Puget Sound and his passion for classic sailing yachts. His love for the sea evolved through his considerable sailing experiences, and he has never strayed far from the water.

Now living on the East coast Bob continues to create maritime paintings from his studio in Cape Neddick, Maine. He is a member of the Copley Society of Art Boston, the Copley Society Portrait Registry, and the Founder of PRIMA the Pacific Rim Institute of Marine Art.

His work is in the permanent collection of the United States Coast Guard, maritime museums, national, and international corporations and private collections in Europe, Asia, the West Indies, and the Americas.

Patricia Chandler

An amazing visual artist Pat Chandler’s career as a commercial and fine artist span six plus decades. She earned a BFA in Illustration from Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island and MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York.

After several years of working in the commercial field creating illustrations she moved to Minnesota, where she renewed her interest in printmaking and painting at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, moving back to Maine in 1971, later becoming an Adjunct Professor of Painting and Drawing at the University of Maine from 2005 to 2014.

When I asked about her creative process and style Pat said, “My creative process and production inevitably refer to my geographic roots. Maine’s more remote regions inspired much of my artwork to the same degree that its landscapes informed my early life. Ever since I can remember, the trees and woods, mountains, lakes, and fields of Maine have been where my mental, physical, and emotional balance could be restored.

The influence of those sensual memories emerges strongly when I work in the studio. My work includesrealistic paintings that seek to record places and certain senses of space and color in sites more visited in the summer by people from other places. Those are more meditative in practice–exercises. The expressionistic, semi-abstract images touch the feeling associated with those wilderness regions of forest and ocean. The variety of Maine’s natural environment is sufficient for many lifetimes of an artist.”

Pat’s paintings are widely collected and held in numerous private and corporate collections across the US.

Carrin Culotta

A Biomedical Engineer in the medical imaging field by training, noted artist Carrin Culotta has created visual art on and off again for many years. Her current portfolio includes paintings from multiple genres including landscapes and figurative works in a range of mediums and styles created en plein and in her home studio in Townsend, Massachusetts.

Having grown up in New England, Carrin “acquired an appreciation for its unique beauty and seasons. My adventurous spirit and love for untamed natural settings inspires me to paint on location in and around northern New England. I use art to channel my creative focus on natural subjects and to evoke the emotion I feel while experiencing it. Art allows me to immerse myself in the beauty of nature and the mystery of a moment in time. This gives me great satisfaction and is what I enjoy most in my life.”

Carrin is a member of the Princeton Art Association, Princeton Portrait Group, Massachusetts Plein Air Artists Group, Central Massachusetts Plein Air Painters, Plein Air Painters of Maine, Plein Air Painters of New Hampshire, Gardener League of Artists, Leominster Art Association, and an Associate Member Oil Painters of America.

Randy Eckard

Raised in North Carolina, Randy studied at the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, Florida and the Haywood School of Craft in Clyde, North Carolina.  A trained commercial and fine artist living in Blue Hill, Maine Randy’s career as a fine artist working exclusively with watercolors spans more than three decades.

Randy is known for his use of light and shadow, with the subject of most of his paintings being light and how it defines and shapes the scene before him.  His watercolors capture the timeless beauty and charm of Maine’s architecture and landscapes, and his ability to capture the beauty and nuances of simply utilitarian objects in watercolor is magical.

When asked about his career as an artist Randy replied, “I am closing in on forty years of working with watercolors.  For several years I was fascinated by the versatility and wonder of drawing with pencil, and pen and ink. An HB pencil, a kneaded eraser, and a sheet of bristol board, opened a world or exploration in black and white.  At the urging of a friend, I tried adding watercolor to the early stages of my drawings, and I was soon painting more than drawing.  My love of drawing never diminished and continues with quite detailed drawings in preparation for painting.

As a young boy, growing up in the Piedmont area of North Carolina, I began noticing and responding to the warm glow and cool, contrasting shadows of late afternoons.  Those early observations of light would become the focus of my paintings.  Light reveals the character, color, and texture of objects, whether man-made or natural, and the alternation of lighted and shadowed planes produce powerful repeated patterns and are an important element of design.

Early on I realized how quiet observation would most always reveal the life of a subject, and I learned to pay attention to sparks of inspiration, often arriving unexpectedly during my solitary wanderings along the backroads of coastal Maine.”

Randy has won over 190 awards for his paintings in watercolor throughout New England and the Southeast recently winning the Red Ribbon Award in Watercolor, Graphics, and Drawings at the Vero Beach, Florida 2021 Under the Oaks Arts Festival.  His work is widely collected and included in numerous private and corporate collections.

Richard Eyster

Massachusetts based artist Richard H. Eyster is a highly regarded fine artist and retired educator whose medium of choice is watercolor. 

Eyster’s paintings are created using a dry-brush technique with an absolute minimum of water.  Working with Kolinsky sable brushes and an absolute minimum of water, the pigment dries quickly and deeply on heavy archival French paper, allowing layers of luminous color to emerge through the image.

The finely detailed work invested in each painting often consumes three to five months.  A single leaf might take a week for the precise layering of color.  Whether celebrating the lush ripeness of summer berries or conveying a shell scape on the ocean floor, the work is built on a deep and evocative power. Eyster’s technique is primarily photo surrealistic, illuminating the most personal explorations in carefully detailed imagery.  There is no ostensible “meaning” to his paintings…the symbolism, if any, is unintentional and, at best, subconscious.

Now living by the ocean on Boston’s North Shore, he finally leaves his education career behind in 2015.  He founded Time Let Me Play and Uneasy Truce Studios and devotes his energy and imagination full-time to the pursuit of his art.

Richard's paintings have been shown in the National Arts Club (NY), the American Watercolor Society at the Salmagundi Club (NY), and National Academy of Design (NY).  His paintings are exhibited throughout the Northeast and held in numerous private and public collections. 

Kristin Horton

A gifted fine artist, avid outdoorswoman, and retired educator Kris "believes there is a life force or energy generated from all living and organic things. This force, I believe, is shared, exchanged, and expressed all the time. Being still in artmaking allows me to experience these interactions and exchanges. I am drawn to witnessing the energy between people, people and nature, and nature itself.

The discipline of materials and composition, the language of artmaking, dictates my vocabulary. I try to strike a balance between the tension of language and my experience. My discipline, I hope, allows me to express these exchanges.

My intent is that the context of the subject, the composition of the work, the texture, lines, brushstrokes, and colors manifest and expresses these exchanges. I often discover that this happens during the process of creating. I also believe that I am attracted to these moments because these elements at the time are coming together in a unified expression.”

Kenneth Mancini

Kenneth Mancini is a retired President of Cornerstone Bank in Moorestown, New Jersey and an established fine artist whose medium of choice is oil. 

A self-taught artist, Ken returned to creating fine art seven years ago. He is known for his portraits and traditional style landscape paintings which are a key component of his portfolio. 

Each landscape painting is based on experiences and conveys his connection to the ever-changing colors, light, and emotions experienced at that place in time. His painting style is inspired and influenced by 19 century Hudson River School American landscape artists like John Kensett.

Whether conveying calm water at the edge of a coastal marsh or horses grazing in a field, Ken’s paintings have an amazing level of depth and realism. His paintings are exhibited regionally and held in numerous private collections throughout the Northeast.

Jen Pagnini

Jen Pagnini is a trained commercial and fine artist with a BFA in painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, IL.

Her career as a commercial artist spans twenty five years and includes creating graphic designs and illustrations for clients in San Francisco, California and Chicago, Illinois.

She has created fine art on and off again for many years. Her portfolio includes a range of paintings in a variety of styles from plein air landscapes to contemporary abstracts.

Jen’s inspiration comes from her desire to connect to the untamed spirit of animals and nature.  “There’s an immediate intimacy that’s born out of trying to catch an image as its fleeting. The vibrancy I find inherent to capturing a subject en plein air, drives me to work and study on location.  My paintings are encapsulations – records of the temporary, elusive environments that wilderness can create externally and internally.

Be it serene or turbulent – from tide-flooded coastlines to the slow drifting of a cloud – I’m observing and recording the transitory elements of light, color and shape.  The visual landscape is constantly changing and creating changes within me. I’m as much a participant as I am a witness.  Studio work evokes those meetings. I discover what impressions, making that contact with a location or animal, has left behind on my memory.”

HM Saffer II

HM Saffer II is a pointillist artist with a focus on landscapes. His paintings are a combination of Western techniques with those from the Orient, such as sumi-e, and the use of Japanese and Chinese colors creating a unique path towards the visual expression of his personal and emotional views.

A multi-talented visual and performing artist HM graduated from Temple University in 1965, and traveled to Paris, France to enroll in graduate economics courses. While in Paris he performed with many notable French stars including Hugues Autray, Jacques Brel and many other. Later hired by Barclay Records as a producer and he had hit records in 1968 and 1969.

Saffer returned to the United States in 1971 and continued on with his music career at Warner Brothers Productions. He later established HMS Two Music Ltd. and spent his time writing and producing music for films, commercials, recordings, and Broadway productions. HM’s work in the commercial field includes creations for Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Ford Motor Company, and Michelob, among others.

Through this period he continued to paint. In 1981 he began to study the art of Japanese brush painting, Sumi-e. HM traveled to Japan in 1983 to study with Japanese masters and was represented by Galerie Musee and the Artbridge Gallery in Japan, and in Hong Kong by Alisen Gallery and the Kaai Fung Hin Gallery as a resident artist where he enjoyed many successful solo exhibits.

HM reentered the United States in 1994 and took residence in Upstate New York. He instructed at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA, Berkshire Community College, and Columbia-Greene Community College. His works are in numerous corporate and private collections around the globe.

About Richard Boyd Art Gallery

Richard Boyd Art Gallery, an owner operated fine arts gallery represents a diverse group of nationally renowned and established artists. The gallery exhibits original paintings in a range of styles from multiple genres, limited edition bronze sculptures, and a select offering of works in clay. Exhibitions change monthly so clients and visitors always discover something new and exciting when visiting the gallery.

The gallery is open year-round. From the first of April through the end of October the gallery is open between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. daily. From the first of November through the end of March the gallery is open every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Additional days and times by chance or scheduled by appointment. For more information about the gallery call (207)-712-1097, email info@richardboydartgallery.com or visit the gallery’s website www.richardboydartgallery.com .

For exhibit updates follow the gallery on Facebook www.facebook.com/RichardBoydArtGallery and on Instagram http://www.instagram.com/richardboydartgallery9327 .