埃里克·阿赫以其充满活力的自然世界绘画而闻名，他的作品以他对风景的印象、感知和记忆为指导。（注释i） 阿赫认为他的作品是写实作品。通过这些作品，他“重新与风景连接，正如它在画布上重现一样”。 （注释ii）它们的特点是具象和抽象的永恒互动，以及一种矛盾的“所见和所理解的混合……掺杂着不易理解的东西。” （注释iii）《骑士》是为了回应法国浪漫主义艺术家尤金·德拉克洛瓦19世纪的战斗系列《猎狮记》而创作的。手持武器的骑士与野狮打斗的混乱画面传达了德拉克洛瓦“浪漫主义时代对未知、遥远地方的痴迷与恐惧”。iv就像德拉克洛瓦的作品一样，《骑士》也包含了现实主义的暗示和想象的场景。（注释v） 
阿赫在波士顿的麻省艺术与设计学院获得了艺术学士学位。除了在伦敦中央圣马丁学院学习，他还在芬兰拉赫蒂设计学院完成了研究生学业。他的画作被收藏于多个永久收藏馆中，包括纽约大都会艺术博物馆、新罕布什尔州曼彻斯特的柯里尔艺术博物馆，以及芬兰奥卢艺术博物馆。
注释：i “埃里克·阿赫”，DC Moore 画廊，2022 年 7 月 14 日访问，https://www.dcmooregallery.com/artists/eric-ahoii “埃里克·阿赫”iii DC Moore 画廊，给作者的电子邮件，2022 年 7 月 12 日。iv DC Moore 画廊v  DC Moore 画廊

前房地产开发商和企业家彼得·C·奥尔德里奇创造了广阔的场景，包括城市结构和桥梁、沿海景观和静物。作为其棒球系列的一部分，《开幕日》描绘了波士顿芬威球场的全景。奥尔德里奇有时会在那里素描或拍摄他想要画的图像。（注释vi） 奥尔德里奇画他所见不是为了加入象征性的信息，而纯粹是为了享受。 “通过我的新眼睛看世界让我耳目一新，并且令我感到惊奇。例如，颜色现在呈现在我面前的是一系列更丰富的细微差别和意义。形状、平面、阴影，都有欧几里得的活力，这是我以前完全看不到的，”他说。（注释vii）
在转行做艺术之前，奥尔德里奇毕业于波士顿的哈佛商学院，在和平队服过役，并与他人共同创立了奥尔德里奇·伊士曼和沃尔奇公司，该公司曾融资收购了当时世界上最高的建筑——芝加哥西尔斯大厦。（注释viii） 奥尔德里奇生活和工作在罗得岛州的小康普顿。
注释：vi  梅根·伍尔豪斯，“追求激情”，波士顿环球报，2011 年 2 月 27 日http://archive.boston.com/business/articles/2011/02/27/pursuit_of_fulfilling_activities_never_gets_old/。vii 彼得·C·奥尔德里奇，给作者的电子邮件，2022 年 3 月 30 日viii 梅根伍尔豪斯, “追求激情”，波士顿环球报，2011 年 2 月 27 日http://archive.boston.com/business/articles/2011/02/27/pursuit_of_fulfilling_activities_never_gets_old/。

海蒂·巴克斯特的画作描绘了罗得岛和法国布列塔尼南部海岸的海岸线和农田。这两个地方都是色彩、边缘和结构的起点——“一种平衡的张力，从具体和个别中提炼出抽象和永恒。” 她的作品表达了一系列的情绪，从兴奋到平静。巴克斯特说：“（在画《海边农场》时），我的注意力集中在颜色和结构上。”“当我画完时，我看到稳定和成长的意念漂浮在咸咸的空气中。” （注释ix）
巴克斯特在新英格兰居住了超过25年，并前往她在法国的工作室和农舍寻找艺术灵感。她是普罗维登斯艺术俱乐部的成员，经常在罗得岛小康普顿的画廊和工作室展出自己的作品。其他当地展览包括位于罗德岛州普罗维登斯的麦克斯韦·梅斯画廊和蒂弗顿的四号画廊。
注释：ix 海蒂·巴克斯特，给作者的电子邮件，2022 年 3 月 28 日

抽象画家威廉·肯德尔在他的周围环境中发现美和灵感 （注释x）。他将材料技术结合，包括将颜料用厚涂法、薄涂法和透明技法分层——丰富的纹理在构图中占主导地位。“我认为从抽象的角度来说，我的画作的主题是颜料本身。我完全沉浸于通过摆弄颜料可以在画布上做什么……边界是我的词汇；就像爵士乐，即兴创作是我的语言。我试图不断推动颜料的边界——让其自发地发生。我使用我以前从未用过的组合方式。每一次我开始画画的时候，我自己也很好奇，想看看会发生什么——通常总会是惊喜，”肯德尔说（注释xi）。
肯德尔获得了明尼苏达大学德卢斯分校的理科学士学位，以及威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校的理科硕士和艺术硕士学位。他是马萨诸塞州布里奇沃特州立大学的名誉教授，在那里他教了三十多年的绘画。该艺术家生活和工作在马萨诸塞州韦斯特波特。
注释：x:  威廉·肯德尔简介, 2022年7月12日访问, https://www.williamkendallpaintings.com/about.xi: 威廉·肯德尔, 给作者的电子邮件, 2022年6月17日.

旅行、海洋和花圃等方方面面为玛丽·科科尔的摄影实践提供了素材。为了将鲜花光芒四射的形象描绘成永久的艺术品，她首先从家人和所爱的人那里把它们收集起来，将它们冻在冰里，然后在阳光下拍照，闪闪发光，定格在时间里（注释xii）。科科尔说,“当水结冰时，里面的植物在停住前会漂浮、移动。在雕塑被举起拿到阳光下之前，我都不知道最后的结果会是什么样子。然后，意想不到的细节会显现出来，往往伴随着花的香味，尤其是玫瑰的香味，透过冰块渗透出来。”（注释xiii）
科科尔是新英格兰人，毕业于康涅狄格大学曼斯菲尔德分校的摄影文学学士学位，并在普罗维登斯的罗德岛设计学院获得了摄影艺术硕士学位。她获得了古根海姆摄影奖学金，并被《光圈》《纽约时报》和《DoubleTake》杂志做过专题报道。她的作品被洛杉矶县立艺术博物馆、波士顿美术馆和伦敦维多利亚和阿尔伯特博物馆永久收藏。
注释：xii: 玛丽·科科尔, 给作者的电子邮件, 2022年6月17日.xiii 玛丽·科科尔.

这两幅画是著名广东艺术家关乔昌所作，他在国外被熟知的名字为Lamqua。两幅画展示了中国广州河滨的景象。第一幅画从外国工厂的前方画起，中间为美国工厂前方的国旗。英国和荷兰的工厂在后一幅画的前景中，向上游看去是远处的美国工厂。
对于在广州生活的外商来说，一项流行的消遣活动就是到新中华街的关乔昌工作坊看看，这个工作坊位于外国工厂一角。1844年，美国商人小奥斯蒙德·蒂法尼到访，写道“广州画家王子……名声享誉中国，真乃杰出画家。”（注释xiv）关乔昌可能出身中国绘画世家，毫无疑问他是广州的一流艺术家，但与此同时他还有很多同行；有记载，20世纪中叶的广州外国工厂一带有多达三十个工作坊，每个工作坊都有员工团队。
文本来源： Karina H. Corrigan，位于马萨诸塞州萨勒姆的皮博迪·艾塞克斯博物馆负责收藏的副馆长以及 H.A. Crosby Forbes亚洲出口艺术策展人 
注释：xiv 小奥斯蒙德·蒂法尼（Osmond Tiffany, Jr.）,《美国人旅居天朝期间广州的中国人》（ The Canton Chinese of the American’s Sojourn in the Celestial Empire ）（波士顿剑桥：James Munroe and Company, 1849），第85页 

1784年，美国商人首次参与到中国港口城市广州高度规范的贸易体系中来，这一体系早在近三十年前就已建立起来。就像先于他们到来的欧洲商人一样，美国人生活和工作在珠江沿岸的狭窄土地上，对于中国其他地方所知甚少。
从十八世纪开始，在广州的艺术家们采用西方绘画风格和材料来迎合来访的商人。他们的绘画源自悠久而强大的艺术传统，集美学与文化于一体，反映了广州作为全球贸易中心的角色。这些画家最初使用不透明的水彩并在玻璃上进行反向绘画，后来在1780年代将帆布油画这种具有欧洲特色的材料添加到他们的作品中。
并不意外的是，这些画家最常表达的主题便是广州；很多外国商人寻找的正是这一熟悉的景象，来纪念他们在中国度过的时光。根据画中外国工厂（也被称作hong）西式外立面的变化还有丹麦、西属菲律宾、美国、瑞典、大不列颠和荷兰国旗的排列推测，这幅描绘广州的画作可能是在1815年到1820年之间完成的。
文字来源： Karina H. Corrigan，位于马萨诸塞州萨勒姆的皮博迪·艾塞克斯博物馆负责收藏的副馆长以及 H.A. Crosby Forbes亚洲出口艺术策展人。
（参考: https://www.pem.org/about-pem/curators/karina-h-corrigan-the-h-a-crosby-forbes-curator-of-asian-export-art#:~:text=She%20serves%20as%20PEM’s%20Associate,for%20export%20to%20other%20cultures.）

雕塑家兼活动家考特尼·马蒂森的特定场地装置和大型陶瓷作品突出了在气候变化和人类活动增多的情况下海洋生物和自然之美。马蒂森通过各种努力来“减少浪费和水消耗，购买散装和当地材料，并且只烧满窑。” （注释 xix） 独立柱“幽灵”是用一根来自落基山脉的松木制成，经过染色和褪色，如同一根码头桩，外表镶嵌炻器和瓷器，以模仿褪色的白色珊瑚和海葵。（注释 xx）通过探索陆地和海洋环境受到的影响，马蒂森敦促决策者和企业消除人类对自然造成的威胁： “随着气候变化使我们地球上的海洋和陆地生态系统变暖，一些物种适应了环境，而许多其他物种则面临灭绝。珊瑚和海葵因水温升高而变白。松树林因干旱和树皮甲虫的侵袭而枯萎。”（注释 xxi）
马蒂森在位于纽约州萨拉托加斯普林斯的斯基德莫尔学院获得海洋生态学和陶瓷雕塑文学学士学位，并在位于罗得岛州普罗维登斯的布朗大学获得环境研究文学硕士学位。她与非营利组织“蓝色使命”（Mission Blue）合作，在世界各地提高人们的认识并保护海洋生物。（注释 xxii） 她的作品在位于加利福尼亚州波莫纳的美国陶瓷艺术博物馆、位于伦敦的维多利亚和阿尔伯特博物馆以及位于华盛顿D.C.的美国商务部都有展出。
注释：xix “关于”，考特尼·马蒂森，2022年6月2日访问，https://courtneymattison.com/about。xx 考特尼·马蒂森，给作者的电子邮件，2022年6月22日。xxi 考特尼·马蒂森，给作者的电子邮件，2022年6月27日。xxii “关于”，考特尼·马蒂森，2022年6月2日访问，https://courtneymattison.com/about。

（参考: https://art.state.gov/personnel/debra_valeri/）黛布拉·李·瓦莱里（Debra Lee Valeri）的印象派和氛围感绘画表现的是马萨诸塞州东南部附近的海边和乡村景色。在艺术创作的过程中，瓦莱里在特定的光照条件下重走了她画中描绘的地方。在她温馨怡人又静谧悠远的构图中并无人烟，这鼓励观赏画作的人独自感受和欣赏画中的空间。《十一月映像》表现的是韦斯特波特河畔典型的新英格兰秋日风景，它画出了一种“河流在太阳落山前的寂静无声，而色调比通常的秋日色彩更柔和淡雅。”《海上泡沫》画的则是傍晚的海边，让人联想到“安宁的夏日晚间，沿着海岸散步的回忆。”
瓦莱里在马萨诸塞州布里奇沃特长大，现在在韦斯特波特生活和工作。她在普罗维登斯的罗得岛设计学院取得了插画艺术学士学位。瓦莱里是波士顿艺术家协会和韦斯特波特艺术集团的成员，她的作品曾在马萨诸塞州阿特伯勒艺术博物馆、纽约国家艺术俱乐部和马萨诸塞州巴恩斯特布尔科德角艺术协会展出。

自然、光线和色彩是抽象表现主义者艾米莉·梅森充满活力的绘画背后的驱动力。虽然梅森早期的作品是尺寸较小、手势辅助的纯色抽象画，但她的风格演变为“微妙的面纱和洗色效果，这[取决于]透明和不透明、分层、滴水和稀释油画颜料晕染产生的复杂效果，以绘出动态的色彩和纹理对比。”（注释xv）诸如《起重臂》和《信号机》这样的大尺寸作品更宏大、更强烈，有种“自由挥洒”的感觉——让颜料顺着重力作用在帆布上流动。（注释xvi） “这是个让油画和你对话的过程。我想让一幅画带我去到一个我从没去过的地方”（注释 xvii），梅森说。
梅森是美国德裔色域画家沃尔夫·卡恩的妻子，也是爱丽丝·特朗布尔·梅森的女儿。她母亲是最早接受非客观抽象主义的美国艺术家之一，也是美国抽象艺术家团体的创始成员。xviii她毕业于纽约市库伯高等科学艺术联盟学院，然后在意大利威尼斯美术学院学习，获得了富布赖特项目资助。她的作品被阿尔伯克基的新墨西哥大学艺术博物馆、佛蒙特的本宁顿艺术博物馆和纽约的国家设计学院永久收藏。
注释：xv 罗伯特·沃尔特斯托夫（Robert Wolterstorff）, 《手势绘色：艾米莉·梅森的早期作品》（Gesture Into Color: Early Works on Paper by Emily Mason），第64页。xvi 安德烈-乔罗迪（Andrea Gyorody），“风景、海景、消防通道 ”（“Landscapes, Seascapes, Fire Escapes”），《艾米莉·梅森：切尔西画作1978-1997》（Emily Mason: Chelsea Paintings: 1978-1997），Miles McEnery画廊，第6页。xvii 艾米莉·梅森基金会 | 爱丽丝·特朗布尔基金会，给作者的电子邮件，2022年7月25日xviii 罗伯特·沃尔特斯托夫（Robert Wolterstorff）, 《手势绘色：艾米莉·梅森的早期作品》（Gesture Into Color: Early Works on Paper by Emily Mason），第63页。  

受早期美国现代主义的影响，多拉·阿特沃特·米利金精准地描绘她所看到的世界，特别是新英格兰的沿海风光、历史名镇和渔业。通过使用平面模式以及并置纯色平面，米利金在她的作品中创造流动感，将“图像与颜料交织在一起，使颜料成为图像，反之亦然……我喜欢描绘生活中那些可能不是那么美丽如画的主题以及日常景物。我想要呈现我的世界今天的模样，没有对过往的怀旧和感伤……我一直在寻找方法为我的观众带来意想不到的东西，”她这样说道。（注释xxiii）
米利金毕业于位于新奥尔良的纽科姆学院（现为杜兰大学的纽科姆-杜兰学院），获得绘画、素描和艺术史艺术学士学位，她还获得位于康涅狄格州老莱姆的莱姆美术学院的绘画艺术学士学位。她是普罗维登斯艺术俱乐部的成员和讲师，其画作在位于纽约的萨尔马贡迪俱乐部和位于马萨诸塞州的新贝德福德捕鲸博物馆都有展出。
注释：
xxiii 多拉·阿特沃特·米利金，给作者的电子邮件，2022年6月17日。

Known for his vibrant paintings of the natural world, Eric Aho is guided by his impressions, perceptions, and memories of landscape.[i] Aho considers his pieces to be physical works through which he “reconnects to the landscape as it reforms on the canvas.”[ii] They feature a constant interaction of figuration and abstraction and a paradoxical “mix of what is seen and understood… joined with what is not easily comprehended.”[iii] Rider was created in response to French romantic artist Eugene Delacroix’s nineteenth-century battle series, The Lion Hunt. Turbulent images of horsemen geared with weapons and skirmishing wild lions convey Delacroix’s “Romantic era obsession [with] and fear of unknown, faraway places.”[iv] Like Delacroix’s work, Rider contains hints of realism with imaginary scenes.[v]
Aho earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston. Along with studies at Central Saint Martins, London, he completed graduate work at the Lahti Institute of Design, Finland. His paintings are housed in various permanent collections, namely the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire; and the Oulu Museum of Art, Finland.
[i] “Eric Aho,” DC Moore Gallery, accessed July 14, 2022, https://www.dcmooregallery.com/artists/eric-aho.
[ii] “Eric Aho.”
[iii] DC Moore Gallery, email to the author, July 12, 2022.
[iv] DC Moore Gallery.
[v] DC Moore Gallery.
Peter C. Aldrich
Former real-estate developer and entrepreneur Peter C. Aldrich creates expansive scenes that include urban structures and bridges, coastal landscapes, and still life. Part of his Baseball series, Opening Day portrays a sweeping panorama of Fenway Park in Boston, where he sometimes sketches or photographs images he wishes to paint.[i]Rather than insert a symbolic message, Aldrich paints what he sees purely for enjoyment. “Looking at the world through my new eyes is refreshing, and to me, surprising. Color, for instance, now presents to me a richer array of nuance and meaning. Shapes, planes, shadows, all have Euclidean vibrancy to which I had previously been blind,” he said.[ii]
Before turning to art, Aldrich graduated from the Harvard Business School in Boston, served in the Peace Corps, and co-founded Aldrich, Eastman & Waltch, the firm that financed the purchase of the Sears Tower in Chicago, at the time the tallest building in the world.[iii] Aldrich lives and works in Little Compton, Rhode Island.
[i] Megan Woolhouse, “Pursuing passions,” the Boston Globe, February 27, 2011, http://archive.boston.com/business/articles/2011/02/27/pursuit_of_fulfilling_activities_never_gets_old/.
[ii] Peter Aldrich, email to the author, March 30, 2022.
[iii] Megan Woolhouse. “Pursuing passions,” the Boston Globe, February 27, 2011,  http://archive.boston.com/business/articles/2011/02/27/pursuit_of_fulfilling_activities_never_gets_old/.
Heidi Baxter’s paintings depict shorelines and farmland in Rhode Island and the southern coast of Brittany, France. Both places serve as starting points for color, edge, and structure—“a balanced tension and a distillation of the abstract and eternal from the concrete and specific.” Her works express an array of emotions, from exhilaration to calm. “My mind was on color and structure [while painting Farm By Sea],” Baxter said. “When I finished, I saw ideas of stability and growth floating around with the smell of salt air.”[i]
Baxter has resided in New England for over twenty-five years and travels to her studio and farmhouse in France for artistic inspiration. A member of the Providence Art Club, she regularly shows her work at her gallery and studio in Little Compton, Rhode Island. Other local exhibitions include the Maxwell Mays Gallery, Providence, and Gallery at Four, Tiverton, both in Rhode Island.
[i] Heidi Baxter, email to author, March 28, 2022.
Abstract painter William Kendall finds beauty and inspiration in his surroundings.[i] He combines materials and techniques, including layering pigment with impasto, scumbles, and glazes—rich textures that dominate the composition. “I think in terms of abstraction; the subject of my paintings is the paint itself. I am totally involved in what can be done on the canvas through the manipulation of the paint…The edges are my vocabulary; much like Jazz, Improvisation is my language. I try to keep pushing the paint—to make things happen in spontaneous ways. I use combinations I’ve never used before. Each time I begin a painting, I am curious myself, to see what will happen—and it is always a surprise,” Kendall says.[ii]
Kendall earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Minnesota, Duluth, along with Master of Science and Master of Fine Arts degrees from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is a professor emeritus at Bridgewater State University, Massachusetts, where he taught painting for over thirty years. The artist lives and works in Westport, Massachusetts.
[i] “About,” William Kendall, accessed July 12, 2022, https://www.williamkendallpaintings.com/about.
[ii] William Kendall, email to the author, June 17, 2022.
Aspects of travel, the ocean, and floral gardens inform Mary Kocol’s photography practice. To depict her radiant images as permanent art objects, she first collects flowers from family and loved ones, freezes them in ice, and photographs them in sunlight, shimmering and fixed in time.[i] According to Kocol, “While the water freezes, the plants inside drift and float before stopping in place. I do not know what the final result will look like until the sculpture is held up to sunlight. Then unexpected details are revealed, often accompanied by the scent of the flowers, roses especially, permeating through the ice block.”[ii]
A native of New England, Kocol graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in photography from the University of Connecticut, Mansfield, and earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in photography from the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence. She received a Guggenheim photography fellowship and has been featured in Aperture, the New York Times, and DoubleTake magazine. Her work is housed in the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.
[i] Mary Kocol, email to the author, June 17, 2022.
[ii] Mary Kocol.
Painted by a celebrated Cantonese artist known to foreigners as Lamqua, this pair of paintings shows two views of the waterfront in Guangzhou, China. The first, painted from the upper end of the foreign factory site, is centered on the flag in front of the American hong, or factory. The British and Dutch factories are in the foreground of the latter painting, looking upriver to the American factory in the distance.
A tour of Lamqua’s studio on New China Street, around the corner from the foreign factories, was a popular pastime for foreign merchants living in Guangzhou. In 1844, American merchant Osmond Tiffany, Jr. visited, noting that “the prince of Canton limners … is celebrated throughout China, and is indeed an excellent painter.”[i] Likely descended from a lineage of Chinese painters, Lamqua was unquestionably the leading artist in the port city, but he was far from alone; by some accounts, up to thirty studios – each with a cadre of staff – were practicing in the environs of the foreign factories in Guangzhou during the mid-nineteenth century.
Text credit: Karina H. Corrigan, Associate Director — Collections, and H.A. Crosby Forbes, Curator of Asian Export Art, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts.
[i] Osmond Tiffany, Jr., The Canton Chinese of the American’s Sojourn in the Celestial Empire (Boston and Cambridge: James Munroe and Company, 1849), page 85.
In 1784, American merchants participated for the first time in the highly regulated system of trade that had been established in China at the port city of Guangzhou nearly thirty years prior. Like the European traders who had preceded them, Americans saw little of China beyond the narrow stretch of land along the Pearl River where they lived and worked.
Beginning in the eighteenth century, artists in Guangzhou adopted Western painting styles and mediums to appeal to visiting merchants. Their paintings, part of a robust and long-standing artistic tradition, are aesthetic and cultural hybrids that reflect Guangzhou’s role as a global center for trade. Initially working in opaque watercolor and reverse painting on glass, these trade painters added oil on canvas—a distinctly European medium—to their repertoire in the 1780s.
Not surprisingly, the subject most frequently tackled by these painters was Canton (Guangzhou) itself; a view of this familiar sight was precisely what many foreign merchants sought as souvenirs of their time in China. This view of Guangzhou was likely executed between 1815 and 1820 based on changes to the Western-style facades of the foreign factories, or hongs, and the arrangement of the flags for Denmark, the Spanish Philippines, the United States, Sweden, Great Britain, and the Netherlands. A variety of Chinese vessels lie anchored in the Pearl River in front of the hongs, including a pair of brightly painted junks in the foreground.
Text credit:  Karina H. Corrigan, Associate Director — Collections, and H.A. Crosby Forbes, Curator of Asian Export Art, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts.
（For reference: https://www.pem.org/about-pem/curators/karina-h-corrigan-the-h-a-crosby-forbes-curator-of-asian-export-art#:~:text=She%20serves%20as%20PEM’s%20Associate,for%20export%20to%20other%20cultures.)
Sculptor and activist Courtney Mattison’s site-specific installations and large-scale ceramic works highlight the beauty of marine life and nature amidst climate change and increased human activity. Mattison makes a concerted effort to “reduce waste and water consumption, purchase bulk and local materials, and only fire full kilns.”[i] Encrusted in stoneware and porcelain to imitate bleached white corals and anemones, the freestanding pillar Specter is made from a beetle-kill pine log from the Rocky Mountains, stained and faded like a dock piling.[ii] By exploring environmental impacts on the land and sea, Mattison urges policymakers and corporations to eliminate human-made threats to nature: “as climate change warms the seas and terrestrial ecosystems of our planet, some species adapt while many others face extinction. Corals and anemones stricken by high water temperatures bleach white. Pine forests wither from drought and onslaughts of bark beetles.”[iii]
Mattison received her Bachelor of Arts degree in marine ecology and ceramic sculpture from Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York, and a Master of Arts degree in environmental studies from Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. She collaborates with nonprofit organization Mission Blue to raise awareness and protect marine life around the world.[iv] Her works have been exhibited at the American Museum of Ceramic Art, Pomona, California; the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; and the United States Department of Commerce, Washington, D.C.
[i] “About,” Courtney Mattison, accessed June 2, 2022, https://courtneymattison.com/about.
[ii] Courtney Mattison, email to the author, June 22, 2022.
[iii] Courtney Mattison, email to the author, June 27, 2022.
[iv] “About,” Courtney Mattison, accessed June 2, 2022, https://courtneymattison.com/about.
(For reference: https://art.state.gov/personnel/debra_valeri/)
Debra Lee Valeri’s impressionistic and atmospheric paintings feature coastal and rural landscapes near southeast Massachusetts. As part of her artistic process, Valeri revisits the places she paints during certain lighting conditions. Her intimate, meditative compositions lack human presence, encouraging the viewer to experience and appreciate the spaces as his or her own. A quintessential New England autumn scene along the Westport River, November Reflections portrays a “quiet stillness of the river just before sundown through a softer, more muted palette than is typically associated with autumn.” Seafoam depicts a late-day seaside view, conjuring “nostalgic memories of peaceful, summer evening walks along the shore.”[i]
Raised in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, Valeri currently lives and works in Westport. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence. Valeri is a member of the Guild of Boston Artists and the Westport Art Group, and her work has been exhibited at the Attleboro Arts Museum, Massachusetts; the National Arts Club, New York; and the Cape Cod Art Association, Barnstable, Massachusetts.
Acknowledgements:
Washington, D.C.
Claire D’Alba, Curator
Morgan Fox, Curatorial Assistant
Danielle Giampietro, Registrar
Tabitha Brackens, Managing Editor
Megan Pannone, Editor
Tori See, Editor
Amanda Brooks, Imaging Manager and Photographer
[i] Debra Lee Valeri, email to the author, March 28, 2022.
Nature, light, and color are the driving forces behind abstract expressionist Emily Mason’s vibrant paintings. Although her earlier works were smaller in scale with gestural abstractions in pure color, Mason’s style evolved into “delicate veils and washes of color that [depend] on complex effects of transparency and opacity, of layering, dripping, and bleeding thinned oil paints, to produce dynamic contrasts of color and texture.”[i] Large-scale paintings like Upon a Jib and Semaphore are ambitious and intense, with an attitude of “just let the paint do it” — to allow the paint to drip along the canvas using gravitational force.[ii] “It’s a process of letting a painting talk to you. I want a painting to take me to a place I’ve never been,” Mason said.[iii]
Mason was the wife of German American color field painter Wolf Kahn and the daughter of Alice Trumbull Mason, one of the first American artists to embrace non-objective abstraction and founding member of the American Abstract Artists Group.[iv] She graduated from the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, New York, then enrolled in the Accademia di Belle Arti, Venice, Italy, on a Fulbright grant. Her work is housed in the permanent collections of the University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque; the Bennington Museum of Art, Vermont; and the National Academy of Design, New York.
[i] Robert Wolterstorff, Gesture Into Color: Early Works on Paper by Emily Mason, page 64.
[ii] Andrea Gyorody, “Landscapes, Seascapes, Fire Escapes,” Emily Mason: Chelsea Paintings: 1978-1997,  Miles McEnery Gallery, page 6.
[iii] Emily Mason Foundation | Alice Trumbull Mason Foundation, email to the author, July 25, 2022.
[iv] Robert Wolterstorff, Gesture Into Color: Early Works on Paper by Emily Mason, page 63.
Influenced by early American modernism, Dora Atwater Millikin paints the world precisely as she sees it, specifically New England’s coastal scenes, historic towns, and fishing industry. Using flat patterns and juxtaposing solid color planes, Millikin creates movement on and across her works, interlocking “image with paint so that paint becomes the image and vice versa…I enjoy rendering potentially unpicturesque motifs and everyday objects and scenes in my life. I wish to present my world as it looks today without the nostalgia and sentimentality attached to past times…I am always searching for ways to deliver the unexpected to my viewer,” she says.[i]
Millikin graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting, drawing, and art history from Newcomb College, now Newcomb-Tulane College of Tulane University, New Orleans, as well as a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting from the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts, Old Lyme, Connecticut. She is a member and instructor at the Providence Art Club, and her paintings have been shown at the Salmagundi Club, New York, and the New Bedford Whaling Museum, Massachusetts.
[i] Dora Atwater Millikin, email to the author, June 17, 2022.