Fine arts digest
Watercolor Societys members show opens Feb. 11 at SUNY Orange
MIDDLETOWN The North East Watercolor Societys 2012 members show opens Saturday, Feb. 11, in Orange Hall Galleries on the Middletown campus of SUNY Orange. The exhibit, featuring nearly 100 paintings, runs through March 24.
Works include still lifes, land and seascapes, portraits and semi-abstracts. Originally, the Orange County Watercolor Society, the group grew rapidly in size and scope and changed to the North East Watercolor Society. Now, members come from all over the United States and Canada.
The exhibits reception is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 18, from 1 to 4:15 p.m.
From 1 to 2:30 p.m., contemporary and classical music will be provided by the piano-flute duo Geoff Hamburg and Tom DeCelle of Albany.
Then, from 2:30 to 3:45 p.m., an art demonstration entitled A Light Hand will be presented by Mark deMos of Morristown, N.J.
Ive worked with a large number of artists over the years and looked for artists I could learn from though always to enrich my style rather than copying theirs, the artist said in a press release announcing the exhibit.
The reception and exhibit are free and open to the public. Exhibit hours are Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., plus Sundays Feb. 12 and 26 from 2 to 5 p.m.
Orange Hall is located at the corner of Wawayanda and Grandview avenues in Middletown.
The exhibit and reception are presented by Cultural Affairs. For more information, call 845-341-4891 or visit online at www.sunyorange.edu/culturalaffairs.
Ann Street Gallery will celebrate the art of former West Point cultural arts director
NEWBURGH The Ann Street Gallery in Newburgh opens is its newest exhibition - Bill Yost: A Retrospective - with a reception on Saturday, Feb. 25, from 6 to 9 p.m.
This first major gallery exhibition devoted to the scope of the artistic career of multi-media artist William Yost (1944-2011) focuses on the diverse body of work from the 1960s to 2011.
Yost was born in Minnesota. After graduation from Minnesota State University, Yost accepted the position of cultural arts director at the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he resided over the 4,400-seat Eisenhower Hall Theatre.
His other responsibilities included the internationally renowned performing arts series, the Class of 1929 Art Gallery and West Points poly arts agenda. Yost held this position from 1976 until his retirement in 2006.
Works from the artists family and private collections are brought together for the first time and will occupy the entire gallery space. The exhibition highlights a wide variety of work, representing nearly every type of work Yost made, in both technique and subject matter, including a diverse selection of paintings, sculptures, drawings and watercolors. Among these works are in-depth presentations of all his most important series ranging from the Minimalist Paintings Series (1966-2011), the celebrated Fish Series (1990s), Sculpture and Cane and Able Series (1990-2001) the artists most famous, landmark pieces Doppelgangers (2001-2011), culminating with the breakthrough Contextual Paintings Series, a project which had recently occupied the artist (2008-2011).
The exhibition is on view through Saturday, April 21. The exhibition was curated by Virginia Walsh, Director of the Ann Street Gallery.
The Ann Street Gallery is a nonprofit art gallery specializing in contemporary emerging and established artists. The gallery is located at 104 Ann St. in Newburgh, and hours are Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Friday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
For more information, contact Walsh at 845-784-1146 or vwalsh@annstreetgallery.org, or visit www.annstreetgallery.org.