ROBIN REYNOLDS

While most of New England waits for spring, few are more eager for the first blossoms of the season as Robin Reynolds, whose floral paintings of her North Brookfield, Massachusetts garden can be seen in upcoming months at galleries throughout the region, including The Legacy Collection at Bryan Memorial Gallery in Jeffersonville, Vermont, The Cynthia Winings, G. Watson and George Marshall Store galleries in Maine, group shows at Soprafina Gallery in Boston, CUSP Gallery in Newport, Rhode Island, and ArtsWorcester and The White Room in Worcester, Massachusetts, where her work can be seen on an ongoing basis at BirchTree Bread Company in the city’s Canal District.

Artscope Magazine’s managing editor Brian Goslow talked with Reynolds at the opening reception for her “Interlaced” exhibition she shared with Emily Sandagata at the Worcester Center for Crafts (which closes on March 4) and subsequently exchanged follow-up questions.

WHEN DID YOU START PAINTING “FLORAL” CANVASES — AND WHY DID THEY BECOME THE OUTLET YOU ENJOYED MOST?

I started painting “floral” canvases after I was inspired by my late mentor, Jon Imber (the Boston and Maine based painter passed in 2014). He would paint flowers, and especially dead flowers, and I always loved them but didn’t know if I could do justice to painting something so beautiful. I knew I needed to make the flowers my own and not replicate what was in front of me, but rather use them as a catalyst for the painting process — always juxtaposing between representation and abstraction.

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