By Nancy Brossard and Mary Woodcock Johnson
Gallery Hours: Thursday-Saturday, 1-5 pm
Opening Reception: Thursday, May 2, 5-7 pm
“To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring.” – George Santayana
Staying open to the possibilities of different seasons in painting as well as life creates unexpected opportunities.
Spring is a new beginning, Summer means flowers and walks and outside activities, Fall is color and brisk days, and Winter evokes cold, snow, ice and dormancy. Interpreting the changing seasons in their paintings is a theme embraced by the artists. Nancy and Mary view the Adirondack seasons through painting by personal expression and interpretation of the landscape. Whether they are painting Plein Air or in their studios, they bring a history of painting the landscape of the Adirondacks to their oil and acrylic paintings.
Nancy Brossard
Nancy Brossard is originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
She had an early interest in art and began painting with oils when she was 10 and loved it. Nancy attended U.W. Madison and Milwaukee in Fine Arts-Painting and Drawing.
Brossard has lived in the Adirondacks since 1986. All of her paintings are oils done in plein air.
Nancy is drawn to the woods, mountain vistas, lakes and flowing streams of the Adirondacks.
She finds inspiration for painting in nature, taking in light and color in its purest form. Painting water is most challenging and satisfying for her.
Brossard joined the Adirondack Artists Guild in Saranac Lake in 1998 and shows and features regularly in their gallery.
Artist’s Statement
I am drawn to the woods, mountain vistas, still lakes, and flowing streams of the Adirondacks. I find inspiration for painting in nature, taking in light and color in its purest form.
Painting water is most challenging and satisfying for me. Although all my work is started outdoors, I like the oil paint to set up slowly, and paint in layers of color to give depth and breadth.
Mary Woodcock Johnson
Mary Woodcock Johnson is a Maine native who has painted and taught art in the Adirondacks since 1984. Oils, watercolor, acrylics and drawing are her usual mediums. While attending classes at the University of Maine and the University of Wisconsin she focused on drawing and painting figures’ interactions and relationships along with gestures that create a sense of place allowing the viewer access to the painting. The tilt of a head, the closeness of two figures as they walk by a third, Winter Carnival crowds or a solitary figure walking down a dreary street are often her subjects.
Mary’s daily walks in the woods influencd her painting so that landscapes, flowers, trees, animals and birds are now her subjects. Those both seen and those she hopes to see have become the focus of her work as she explores local trails.
Mary is a member of NorthWind Fine Arts Gallery, Saranac Lake, Downtown Artist Cellar, Malone, and exhibits at Gallery 46, Lake Placid. Her work is included in both private and public collections in the US and abroad.
Artist’s Statement
My paintings are personal expressions of my life in Saranac Lake and Maine. What I see as I walk local trails with my dog and what I would love to see are recently my subjects.
While I still paint figures, landscapes are now a major theme in my paintings. I am now painting mood and emotional connection through color, light, and sense of place rather than solely through figures and their relationship to each other and their environments.