Opening Reception “Brush and Knife” at ARTery
The ARTery Gallery’s September exhibit is titled “Brush and Knife: Vibrant Visions in Oil and Acrylic,” bringing together two of the gallery’s prolific oil painters: Laura Lippay and Barbara Alice Moir. While both of these artists create large as well as small works, Lippay’s color palette is often, though not always, characterized by pleasing aqua blues and pinks that evoke a feeling of unharnessed joy. In contrast, Moir primarily starts out with a more traditional palette of colors that historically have been associated with representational and realistic themes. However, it’s their choice of painting tools and variety of paint thicknesses that makes this show especially unique. While many oil painters prefer to work either with brushes or with painting knives, Lippay and Moir seem comfortable using both styles of painting, affording them a wide range of textures and expressions on the canvas.
Laura Lippay interprets the world around her with mysticism and fascination. Her work encourages the viewer to glimpse our surroundings with exaggerated color and curiosity. Lippay has been called “all the colors in a Crayola box” and her art referred to as “beautifully macabre,” “colorful,” “bold,” and “eclectic.” As she emphasizes the inner sparkles of light in her velvety souls on canvas, Lippay’s work inspires introspection and contemplation alongside playfulness, romanticism, and sometimes even fortitude. Lippay has received a variety of art instruction via advertising design studies at Northampton Community College, graphic design studies at The Art Institute of Philadelphia, and select courses from the Tyler School of Art and Architecture. She works primarily with oil, acrylic, and ink but also experiments with a variety of techniques and other mediums including jewelry and resin. In addition to being a working member of the ARTery gallery, Lippay is associated with Go Collaborative, a non-profit that brings artistic life to Stroudsburg, PA; the Gamut Art Gallery in the Pocono Mountains; the Wayne County Arts Alliance where she is a member; and the Up Front Exhibition Space in Port Jervis, NY.
Barbara Alice Moir became an artist the day she first borrowed her mother’s oil paints for a high school project at Eldred Central School in Eldred, NY back in the 1960’s. From then on, Moir continued to paint and study art on her own even though she chose music teaching as her full-time occupation. The books and tapes of artist Helen Van Wyk (1930-1994) of Rockport, MA became her favorite source for information. After retiring from music teaching, Moir finally immersed herself in art by moving to Jackson Heights, Queens where she joined the Jackson Heights Art Club as a photographer and oil artist. Within a year, she was accepted into the Salmagundi Art Club in Manhattan, the American Artists Professional League, Audubon Artists, and Flushing Town Hall, in Flushing, Queens, NY. While participating in their exhibits, she studied painting with John Foote, (Professor of Humanities, School of Visual Arts, NYC) whose work is in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. Today Moir is pleased to be back in the Tri-states area as a working member of the ARTery Gallery. “Every time I walk in the door, I am tremendously energized by all the creativity and comradery among the artists here,” she says.
The ARTery Gallery, located in the historic Forest Hall, is a cooperatively owned and operated fine art gallery, serving regional artists and art lovers since 1996. The gallery features a wide array of artistic talent ranging from traditional oil, watercolor, and photography to sculpture, jewelry, textiles, pottery, and collage.
You can visit with Laura Lippay and Barbara Alice Moir while enjoying complimentary refreshments at their opening reception on Saturday, September 14th from 6-9 PM. The ARTery welcomes the public to this free cultural event. The month-long Lippay-Moir exhibit will be on display from Thursday, September 12th through Monday, October 7th.
