Carol Ast – Featured Show

Luminous Worlds

Work by Ileen Kaplan and Carol Ast

Carol writes: “Luminous Worlds” – what latitude that gives me, what ideas it stimulates! From the very literal interpretation of light and the infinite qualities it bestows, to “light” as understanding resulting from vision. While most of my paintings in this exhibition portray the former, a few – the buildings – hopefully will foster an understanding of their inherent value as functional and esthetic icons of the past.

From Ileen: In “Luminous Worlds” I am exploring my feelings and reactions to the world around me using abstraction in ways that I have not tried before. Playing with painted and torn paper, collage, printmaking tools, pastels, graphite and oils has opened my imagination up to new ways of looking at the world and expressing my own inner landscape.

Of the Earth

“Of the Earth” is a two-person show of work by gallery member Carol Ast and her invited guest artist Isabella Jacob. Jacob says her current work is a series “air/ice/rock”, an ongoing theme interpreting the most elemental aspects of our physical world. About her work, Ast says, that in addition to the landscapes she has painted in pastels over the years, she has begun to paint oyster shells which, when scrubbed, reveal unexpected, subtle colors and fascinating forms.

A reception for the artists will be held Friday, August 2 with a wine tasting hosted by Americana Vineyards.

Show dates: July 31-September 1, 2013.

The Sky’s the Limit

“The Sky’s the Limit,” an exhibition of paintings in pastel by Carol Abitabilo Ast will be at the gallery August 4-29. A reception for the artist will be held Friday, August 6 from 5-8pm with wine tasting compliments of Damiani Wine Cellars.

Carol says: “Much of the work in this exhibit demonstrates my fascination with the sky. Always the backdrop, whether looking out a window or being out-of-doors, here it becomes a prominent feature. With the sky emerging from the chorus line to stardom, the nature of the land is also changing in this exhibit. Landscape is often associated with shades of green, but only a few of these paintings have any green in them at all. Winter, rock and dusk rob the land of its traditional color, but present the viewer with beauty of a different sort.

Basically I use my pastels to preserve and share what I find beautiful. The world is packed with controversy, stress, frustration, anger. To allow loveliness in any manifestation to enter the mind is to regain humanness. I hope this exhibit succeeds in some way in this direction.”

The artist periodically conducts pastel landscape workshops in New Mexico, New York and Maine and much of the work in this show represents her views of those places. You can visit Carol’s web site and see more of her work: www.carolast.com.

The artist will be sitting at the State of the Art Gallery every Saturday during the month of August.