When you see a Jackie Reeves painting you know it. She has been honing her unique style over two decades, gaining mastery and confidence. You can partake in a selection of Reeve’s art, “Larger Than Life – Drawings In Time,” curated by fellow artist Bert Yarborough in a solo exhibition of 14 large scale pieces at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum (PAAM). The pieces are physically dynamic and provocative intellectually and emotionally. Reeves uses her own body as a portal through which her life experiences shunt onto her canvases. She’ll place her receiving material on the floor, whether a birch wood panel, mylar, fabric or canvas. On all fours dripping, splashing, spreading, dragging paint, she begins a kind of dance with the media she uses. Several of the works at PAAM are done on black out curtain linerswhich Reeves received as a gift. She played with it, not knowing its … [Read more...] about “HAPPY ACCIDENTS”

“The Land Tells Our Stories” is an ambitious group of three large scale, site-specific works which unfurl across Massachusetts this summer. The project has been commissioned by the Trustees of Reservations at four of its properties, some well-known and some off the beaten path: the Crane Estate and Beach in Ipswich, Moose Hill Farm in Sharon, Rock House Reservation in West Brookfield and Fruitlands Museum in Harvard, Massachusetts. The Crane Estate, a palatial North Shore summer home built in the 1920s for a wealthy industrialist, is now a Trustees-managed, National Historic Landmark. The estate and its accompanying beach are the settings for Posey (Pamela) Moulton’s sculpture, “Second Wind.” Constructed as an arch framing both the land and the ocean, the large-scale piece uses Pal Tiya cement over a stainless-steel framework, which is festooned with casts of seashells and textured like … [Read more...] about THE LAND REMEMBERS

The name Alex Katz immediately conjures up images of sharply silhouetted faces, figures and landscapes painted on gigantic canvases — bold compositions of fresh, bright colors that feel clean and crisp on 10- or 12-foot canvases. So, it is a surprise to discover an entirely different side of Katz in the drawing exhibition “Alex Katz | Out of Sight” at Colby College Museum of Art. Skillfully organized by Colby Museum Curator Kiko Aebi, the exhibition is a thoroughly engaging collection of roughly eighty works on paper, some as small as postcards, dating from the 1940s through the 1990s. The range of drawings offer a view into how his creative sensibilities developed over time. Drawing is defined broadly here. It encompasses the usual graphite and charcoal and ink and even includes paint when used as a preparatory drawing. These are accompanied by a handful of related paintings, also … [Read more...] about BEHIND THE LINES AT COLBY

The first thing to know about Rona Lee Cohen’s art is that it begins with quiet intensity and an intimate relationship with each new piece she is contemplating. Her oil paintings on paper are largely abstract combined with a colorful vibrancy often inspired by still life. She strives to capture both color and form in a unique way that has a personal rhythm for her versus painting literal interpretations. She put it this way: “Painting is my unruly companion. We have a tense relationship. Painting demands my full attention, and I am always searching for a deeply studied quality to the work. When I’m getting close to completing a piece, I experience a camaraderie and harmony with the painting.” Her inspiration on any given day might be a color, a plant, noticed patterns or household items she wants to explore in a sensory way. Cohen’s latest exhibition, “Carrying On,” is on view through … [Read more...] about PAINTING THE UNFORMED