A Contemporary
Co-operative Gallery
in the Boston SoWa
Art & Design District

New England Collective

New England Collective

New England Collective

GALLERY HOURS: Mar-Oct, Thu-Sun, 12-5pm; Nov-Feb, Thu-Sun, 12-4pm, and by appointment

Nancy DuVergne Smith

Nancy DuVergne Smith

Nancy Duvergne Smith

Artist Statement: 
Watercolor is a breath of life. The color starts rich and mingles to form new associations. Each painting is a conversation with time and intention. The paintings offer a visceral burst of life that leaps from the artwork into the eyes, brain, and very cells of the viewer. 

My subject matter—water, plants, people, and abstracts—combine in a new series titled Skins and Petals. Each work explores the notion of color as a liberating, not limiting factor. The collages pose rich color surfaces against crisp cut-paper edges. Figures, hands, and feet play against flower images, enriched with human colors from deep blood red to the medley of skin variations.

​Everyday my brush gets wet is a good day.

Artist Bio: 
Nancy DuVergne Smith earned a BFA at Tulane University and a masters in English and American literature at Harvard’s Extension school. She has taught writing at Wellesley College, ESL in Egypt, and writing for the web workshops. Her memoir about her first year of retirement from MIT is in progress.

In 2022, she has shown paintings in more than a dozen exhibitions including the New England Watercolor Society’s juried Celebrating New England show and the Newton Art Association’s juried Human Being | Being Human show at the Piano Craft Gallery. Her work was chosen for juried events including the traveling FenceArt Newton show, Unquiet at the Piano Craft Gallery, and a Newton Watercolor Society 2023 calendar. She curated two shows, Regarding Water at the Honeyjones Gallery in Cambridge and co-curated the Art of the Line at Galatea Fine Art. She is a board member and past president of the Newton Art Association.

nancyduvergnesmith.com
Insta: nancy duvergne
FB: Nancy DuVergne Smith
Irene Stapleford

Irene Stapleford

Irene Stapleford

Artist Statement: 
Upstretched branches, linear form, living presence: 
“Trees are poems the earth writes upon the sky
We fell them down and turn them into paper,
That we may record our emptiness.”
                 — Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet
Inspired by landscapes, dreams, and memories, I make paintings incorporating energetic figurative gesture, layered color, organic geometry such as tree branches, triangle or dot patterns, and sometimes digitally manipulated figures or objects via image transfer.
Upstretched arms of tree branches, tracing imperceptible yet undeniable growth and linear form, have been a recurring theme in landscape and abstraction. Working outside painting directly from the subject allows particular, distinct “personalities” to emerge. Trees affect our quality of life, yet are overlooked and underappreciated: unsung climate change heroes, property value anchors, intelligent elders, and constant, gracious companions. My paintings have been transitioning to more powerful massing of tree forms in silhouette, framed against bright, constrasting skies. I look forward to seeing where this shift in palette and tone takes me.


Artist Bio: 
I’m a practicing artist and graphic designer, earned my BA and MFA in fine art, and have taught classes in both fine art and graphic design at the deCordova Museum, Worcester Museum of Art, Greenfield Community College, and University of Southern Maine. I have lived in New England for the past quarter-century, and am staying for the foreseeable future, for love of the trees, seasons, and compelling scenery taken in while driving. I currently reside in Merrimac, MA with my two daughters and one cat.