Figures and Landscapes: Tina Ingraham and Kate Emlen, Thos. Moser Gallery in Freeport, Winter 2015 art exhibition

The Thos. Moser Gallery in Freeport, Maine is pleased to announce its winter 2015 art exhibition, Figures and Landscapes:  Tina Ingraham and Kate Emlen.  The public is invited to an artists’ opening reception on January 22, 2015 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

The group exhibition highlights figures and landscapes from prominent Maine artists.  The featured artists are Tina Ingraham, originally from Kenton, Ohio, a classically trained figurative painter and Kate Emlen, a Philadelphia born plein air painter.  In addition to the featured artists, the works of 11 other artists will be on display.

Tina Ingraham has maintained residence in Maine since 1977, while traveling to augment her painting career.  She received a Bachelor of Science in Design at the University of Cincinnati and her MFA in painting from Brooklyn College.  After teaching as a visiting assistant professor at Bowdoin College, she painted four months in residence at Dorland Art and MacDowell Colonies followed by a year of painting in Italy as a Guggenheim Fellow.  Upon receiving a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, she extended her time in Italy for two years, traveling Europe to study master paintings. During this time, she painted still life and the figure in studio, and the Umbrian landscape en plein air.  Ingraham’s study of Renaissance portrait, fresco and landscape painting is evident in her warm palette, fascination with surface and vivid perception of nature. Continuing her study of the figure, Ingraham works from observation, painting subtle shifts of color in still life, and the rapid evolution of Popham Beach in changing tides and seasons, her muse since 2010. She mentors artists and is currently writing a text on color theory and painting.

Kate Emlen, a resident of Norwich, Vermont who has spent summers in Brooksville, Maine throughout her life, paints primarily the northern New England landscape as well as still life.  After graduating from Kirkland College in New York, she earned her MFA in design from Yale.  She worked in graphic design for over twenty years, receiving international acclaim and numerous awards for her poster designs.  Emlen made a gradual shift to painting in the mid-eighties as graphic design was transitioning from paste-up to digital.  She went on to complete art residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, the International School of Painting, Drawing, and Sculpture in Montecastello, Italy, and Maryland Institute College of Art’s Alfred and Trafford Klots Artist Residency in Brittany, France.  Most recently, Emlen was a Visiting Lecturer in drawing at Dartmouth College.  Emlen returns yearly to the same motifs of her childhood landscape on a cove on Penobscot Bay.  Going back and forth between plein air sketching and development in the studio, her love of mark-making and her enjoyment of the paint create a rhythm which invites an emotional engagement with the elements.  Her work reflects the way she both sees and intuits her surroundings.

For both artists, a foundation in design evolved into a growing interest in painting.  And both, by mid-career, were recognized with dozens of exhibitions throughout the country as well as in international venues.  Independently, they ventured to Italy to paint and study art, taking away similar artistic influences from that country’s history and landscape.  Both artists paint from life, allowing them to explore the formal qualities of light, texture and form with painterly brushstrokes, resulting in striking and elegant compositions.

The Thos. Moser Gallery is located at 149 Main St. in Freeport, Maine.  The gallery is open Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. through 5 p.m.  The art exhibition is on display through April 26, 2015.  For more information, call 207-865-4519 or email:  freeportshowroom@thosmoser.com.