LBGE welcomes Catherine Raynes

LBGE is happy to announce that New Hampshire based oil painter, Catherine Raynes, has just the gallery. Her work is excecuted to a superior quality and she brilliantly captures light and clean, bright colors. For more information, please click here. Stop in to view her entire collection.



Catherine Raynes - Evening's Arrival - Oil on Canvas - 9 x 12 in.



Trunk Show

Meet Jewelry designers Susan Roberts, Heather Wang, and Linda Sherman

Sunday, May 1st from 12 – 4pm

Left Bank Gallery Essex, LLC is hosting a trunk show on Sunday, May 1st from 12 – 4pm featuring jewelry designers Susan Roberts, Heather Wang, and Linda Sherman. Meet the designers and view an extensive collection of their newest creations.

*Find the perfect Mother’s Day gift or the latest styles to accessorize your spring wardrobe*

Susan Roberts is a jeweller who draws on the many inspiring qualities of nature’s evolving beauty; and handcrafts her jewelry using a style that is both bohemian and sophisticated. Susan’s multi-layered, color-rich pieces are made with the finest semi-precious stones, freshwater pearls, sterling silver and vermeil; and will compliment the palettes of all jewelry collectors. Susan Roberts resides in Branford, CT.

 

Heather Wang is a designer inspired by natural forms and floral elements. Her latest collection features colorful enamel cherry blossoms and branches in sterling silver or copper. Combining vibrant color with delicate designs, Heather’s jewelry is fun and easy-to-wear from day into night. Heather Wang has a BFA in Jewelry and Metalsmithing from Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA in Goldsmithing, Silversmithing and Metalwork from the Royal College of Art, London. She is currently based in Lowell, MA.

 

Linda Sherman is a watercolorist and jewelry maker, who creates bright light-weight artisan jewelry from her original watercolor paintings. Using clusters of watercolor beads and handmade lampwork beads, each piece of Linda Sherman jewelry is a unique work of art. Linda is currently based in New London, CT.

Open Swim : Samantha French



Samantha French - Three Feet Below - Oil on Canvas - 36 x 48 in



Open Swim : Samantha French

May 4th - June 13th 2011

Meet the artist : Thursday, May 5th from 5 - 8 pm

Left Bank Gallery Essex, LLC presents a solo exhibition by young contemporary oil painter, Samantha French. “Open Swim” will feature French’s latest paintings, depicting bathing beauties and submerged swimmers, and the water and refractive light surrounding them. French’s paintings elucidate the tranquillity and serenity of water, and the intrinsic value of a dip in the pool or a day at the beach.

Based on the artist’s childhood memories of summers spent at the lakes in northern Minnesota, her newest paintings capture pool-side conversations or tanned women surfacing for sunlight and air. French’s most intriguing canvases portray swimming figures from below or from the side, and capture light and reflections on top of or entering the water. She uses gestural brush strokes and fresh color choices, and thoughtfully crops her compositions to emphasize the space beyond the picture plane. As her figures float or glide through lakes and swimming pools, each swimmer is immersed in the moment and caught in solitude, liberated from the constraints of gravity. With figures dressed in retro swimwear, often in red, orange or black, contrasted against cool greys or aqua blues; French’s paintings blur the line between vintage and modern, creating a nostalgic place or time that seems familiar yet current. Of her work, French explains, “I am drawn to an idealistic time before my own, where swim caps and wool swimsuits were commonplace. This combination of memory, observation and photography (old and new) has allowed me to preserve the transitory qualities of water and remembrance.” French’s paintings will breathe new life into any interior, and invite one to pause for a moment of calm and clarity even on the cloudiest of days.

Samantha French was born and raised in north central Minnesota and graduated from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design with a BA in Fine Arts in 2005. She currently resides in New York City. Her work can be found in private collections throughout the country. “Open Swim” is French’s first solo exhibition in Connecticut.