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August 10, 2010
The French Connection
Four artists connected by their love for France will exhibit their work at Patricia Ladd Carega Gallery. Amazingly enough each of these artists has ties to the Lakes Region and visit regularly. Saira Austin and Lissa Hunter who both were working in France last year join Anna Jeretic and Donna McLeod Balsan who both live in France. Opening August 18th, the exhibit will be on view until mid September at Patricia Ladd Carega Gallery, 69 Mapble Street (Route 113) in Center Sandwich. Like the White Mountains, the south of France and Paris have attracted artists for centuries.
Last winter while talking to Lissa Hunter in her studio, I discovered that she had been working in Vallaurois during the Fall of 2009. Vallaurois is a medieval town located between Cannes and Antibes. It has been a ceramics town since then. Picasso discovered it in the 1940s and made all of his ceramics there until his death in the 1970s. During our conversation I asked Lissa to describe what was special about working in France and why she had chosen to go there.
Her reply: “My interests were in speaking French as much as possible, to have the uninterrupted time and concentration to develop some ideas that I had stored up, and to draw. The drawing was the big revelation. I drew as I never had before. I had always drawn some, but mostly as note-taking and engineering, not as a means of expression. And usually I worked small. Now, as a result of my time in France, I am doing large drawings in various media and loving it. The stay there has changed my art-making practice in wonderful ways.
I have had a love affair with France for about 12 years or so beginning with my studying the language. I have no idea why I chose France, and not Italy or Finland or Chile or...
But I'm sure that it has to do with the food, the landscape, the sound of the language, the prizing of intellectual life, the wine, the history, the architecture, and did I mention the food? I like who I am when I'm there. But the irony is that I feel totally American, not French, and that's ok”.
When I left Lissa’s studio, the idea of a French exhibit was born. Saira Austin had also been in France on a residency during the summers of 2009 and 2010. She describes her experience: “Last year I was able to stay nine weeks in Saint-Remy de Provence. I rented a two-bedroom 18th century Mas on the property of a Chateau that was built adjacent to the 16th century home of Nostradamus’ brother (still standing), which was built on a former Roman site. The roman pool still functions.
I returned to the same Mas this year for three weeks, and afterwards rented an apartment in Paris (Ile Saint-Louis) for nearly three weeks.
I think the art I've made in Provence reflects the gentleness and joie de vivre spirit I encountered in Saint-Remy, the generosity of the people, the ancient art of the caves, the old towns, the sculpted landscape, the sheep, and the wild winds. An intensity of history and a profound inner happiness.
In Paris, my paintings remember history and respond to place.”
Anna Jeretic is a painter and print maker who lives in a small town outside of Paris. An American by birth, France is her home. Fluent in French and accostomed to life there, it is curious as to wether or not the culture effects her work. A long time member of the stable at Patricia Ladd Carega Gallery, Jeretic will exhibit her etchings and monotypes. Her animals are soft and friendly even though they live in the jungle. They were observed by Jeretic on safari in Africa. The secoond series of etchings involves a copper oxicdation process. The work is reminds of vines, leaves and is nature based. It is more contemporary in feel and is reminiscent of Japanese of Japanese prints. One of Jeretic;s most popular images is “Avenue de L’Observatoire. Birds fly fly down the “allee” lined with trees and remind anyone of their last trip to France’s capitol.
Like Anna Jeretic, Donna Balsan is an American artist living in Paris. Her window views, flowers and fruits are painted in vivid color. Balsan paints in oil on kraft paper or canvas paper. Her work feels like a painterly excursion into the essense of French Life. Balsan has studied trompe l’oeil, faux marbre and faux bois. She exhibits in France and her commissionos have included Renaissance Cruise Lines, The Hilton Hotel in Munich and a number of private homes in the USA and abroad.