Berkshire artist Bart Elsbach is one of America’s premiere landscapists. Influenced by the Hudson River School and Dutch Golden Age painting, Elsbach’s beautifully lit works innovate on the Dutch Masters’ romantic Italianate landscape – revealing New England locales in new light. Born in 1961 and raised in Manhattan, Elsbach graduated from The Dalton School and went on to earn his Bachelors degree from Hamilton College. After attending the Art Students’ League of NY, he completed his MFA at New York University. Over the years Elsbach has shown in solo and group exhibitions nationally, and frequently in New England galleries. He also teaches, both through private instruction and at institutions such as the Berkshire School in Sheffield MA and at The Interlaken School of Art in Stockbridge.

Artist Statement:

"Although we seem desperate to distinguish ourselves from nature and hold ourselves removed, we cannot escape the deeper reality that we are a product of nature and tied to her inextricably. The river, as both a physical realty and powerful metaphor, is a limitless source of inspiration and solace. Despite our disrespect and disregard for her, she flows on patiently and powerfully."

-Bart Elsbach

Selected Solo Exhibitions:

1997: Solo Exhibition Wheatleigh, Lenox, MA

1995: Solo Exhibition Canyon Ranch, Lenox, MA

1994: Solo Exhibition Chaiwalla, Sharon, CT

Solo Exhibition Cove Castles, Anguilla, BWI

1993: Solo Exhibition The Carnegie Library, Clarksdale, MS

1991: Solo Exhibition Berkshire Medical Plaza, Great Barrington, MA

1988: Solo Exhibition The Barney Building, New York, NY

Solo Exhibition New York Society of Trading Analysts

Juried Shows:

Springfield Art League 1989, 1988

Sheffield Art League 1999 (Juror), 1992 (Award for Oil Painting), 1990, 1989, 1988

Pittsfield Art League 1988

Kent Art League 1993 (Juror), 1992 (Best in Show, Graphics), 1989, 1988

Commissions:

1996: Interlaken School of Arts

Sheffield Land Trust

Fellowships:

2002: Malilangwe Artists Trust, Zimbabwe

2001: World Views, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council

Assistantships:

1987, 1986: Lamar Briggs, New York, NY

1987, 1986: Lisa Mackie, New York, NY

1987: Joseph Scorcello, New York, NY

1986: Idelle Weber, New York NY

Berkshire-based artist Mary Sipp Green has been living as a landscape painter for more than twenty years. For Sipp Green, her art is not so much a career as a way of life. She sees beauty in the everyday, and it is her ability to render her visions through oil and linen that draws the viewer in. Sipp Green captures the emotion or atmosphere of a scene, giving the opportunity for an understanding of feeling, of a truth that resonates as more true than the factual pictures Realism offers. The artist’s landscapes sometimes hint at her admiration of Rothko’s spirituality and reveal an appreciation for the work of the Luminist painters. Reluctant to label her style, the artist describes her work as having varying degrees of Romanticism, Impressionism and Abstraction.

Sipp Green began drawing and painting as she grew up at her father’s studio in Manhattan. She went on to earn a degree at FIT where she studied apparel design before moving to the Berkshires with her family. Here, inspired by the local landscape, she returned to her love of painting. Sipp Green’s work has been exhibited in numerous solo and group shows in both galleries and museums throughout the United States.

Artist Statement:

"I live along the banks of the Housatonic River, an ever-changing yet gentle force of nature. From my windows, I can see how the swift-moving water catches the colors of the sunrise, the afterglow of early evening, and the silver-gold shimmer of the moonlight. Each day on the river is different from the last, and like the unexpected turns of life itself, the coursing waters always bring fascinating and sometimes breathtaking experiences into view: The migration of birds traveling over this liquid highway; the arcing fish that break up the ice in early spring, when thousands of shards flow down the river in lily-like clusters. This life force, a gift from nature, deserves to be restored and protected for all time and shared with the generations to come.

The paintings I made for this exhibition celebrate the magical play of light on the waters of the Housatonic, this river that I love."

—Mary Sipp Green

Selected Public Exhibitions:

2014: “Recent Acquisitions: Butler Pastel Collection” Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH

2005: “Re-Presenting Representation” Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, NY

“Mary Sipp-Green, Selected Works (1990-2004)” Solo Exhibition Springfield Museum of Fine Art, Springfield, MA

“The Power of Place: The Berkshires” Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA

2004: “Housatonic River Reflections” Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, MA

1994: 169th Annual Museum Juried Exhibition National Academy Museum, New York City, NY

1992: 167th Annual Museum Juried Exhibition Received the Adolph and Clara Obrig Prize National Academy Museum, New York City, NY

1990: 165th Annual Museum Juried Exhibition National Academy Museum, New York City, NY

Berkshire-based Stephen Hannock was an avid hockey player, a great student athlete, before he transitioned to life as a working artist. He has espoused that, contrary to how disparate these two occupations and passions may seem, “art has a lot in common with athletics – you practice, honing skills, and then you respond spontaneously to events.” In his dedicated practice, Hannock discovered techniques of his own invention. He layers each piece, sometimes including personal photographs or letters, and not infrequently subtle text, giving each painting an emotional intensity and veracity that resonates with viewers. Hannock also polishes his canvases, or as he has said, “I rip into my compositions with power tools.” Hannock’s gift for unconventionally pairing approaches and perspectives results in his profound, atmospheric neo-Luminist masterpieces. When asked about the influence of the Hudson River School on his works, Hannock explains that the “missing link” between the 19th Century Luminists and his oeuvre is actually closer to the lengthy establishing shots of vistas that directors like Alfred Hitchcock and David Lean use to suggest mood, foreshadow future events, and set the scene. Hannock, through the combination of innovative technique and integrative artistic philosophy, renders cinematography through painting – capturing both the light and emotional atmosphere of a scene in ways that the cold technology of a camera never could.

During a post-grad year at Deerfield Academy, Hannock took his first art class since grade school. He continued his exploration upon his arrival at Bowdoin, and through the Twelve College Exchange program, went on to take more art classes at Smith. In Northampton Hannock apprenticed with renowned sculptor and printmaker Leonard Baskin. In 1976 he graduated with a BA from nearby Hampshire. Hannock’s work premiered first at the Smith College Museum of Art, where he was the youngest artist to have a solo exhibition, and the Fine Arts Center at the University of Massachusetts. His work now hangs in collections such as the Metropolitan Museum, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Education:

1976 BA Hampshire College

1972-75 Apprenticed to Leonard Baskin

2009 Honorary Doctorate of Fine Art, Bowdoin College

2010 Honorary Doctorate, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts

Selected Public Solo Exhibitions:

2012 Gathering Light: The Art of Stephen Hannock, Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, Brattleboro, VT

2010 Flooded Canyon, Yellowstone Dawn, North Adams Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, WY

2010 Mt Blanca with Ute Creek, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO

2010 Two Paintings, One Show, Mass MoCA, North Adams, MA

2007 Survey Exhibition, The Albany Institute of History and Art, Albany, NY

2007 Northern City Renaissance, Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA

2005 Recent Vistas with Text, acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

2002-4 The American River, Brattleboro Museum, VT; T.W. Gallery, Vermont College, Montpelier, VT; Montshire Museum, Norwich, VT; Philadelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA; Florence Griswold, Lyme, CT

1998 Stephen Hannock: Space and Time, Deerfield Academy, Deerfield, MA; Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, OH

1995 After Church, After Cole: Stephen Hannock’s Oxbow, Timkin Museum of Art, San Diego, CA

1990 Selected Works; 1970-1990, Joseph V. Reed Center for the Arts, Deerfield, MA

1982 Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

Selected Public Group Exhibitions:

2002-04 The American River, Brattleboro Museum, Brattleboro, VT; T.W. Gallery, Vermont College, Montpelier, VT; Montshire Museum, Norwich, Vermont; Philadelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA; Florence Griswold Museum, Lyme, CT

2002 Changing Prospects: The View from Mount Holyoke, Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, South Hadley, MA

2000 Landscape 2000: Late 20th Century American Landscape Painting, University of Wyoming Art Museum, Laramie, WY

2000 Transcending Earth and Sky, University Art Gallery, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA

1999-00 Water: A Contemporary American View, Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC; Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AL; Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WI

1999-00 Green Woods and Crystal Waters: The American Landscape Tradition since 1950, Philbrook Museum, Tulsa, OK

Davenport Museum of Art, Davenport, IN

Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL

1999 Enduring Vision: Contemporary Painters in the Tradition of the Hudson River School, Mandeville Gallery, Union College, Schenectady, NY

1998 Master & Apprentice, Selected Works from Leonard Baskin & Stephen Hannock, Hampshire College Library Gallery, Amherst, MA

1998 Remembering Beauty: American Landscapes, South Bend Regional Museum of Art, South Bend, IN

1989 Neo-Romantic Landscape and Still Life, Williams Center for the Arts, Lafayette College, Easton, PA

1988 Luminous Painting and Sculpture, Hampden Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA

Selected Public Collections:

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA

Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA

Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA

Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX

Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, OH

Readers Digest Collection, Pleasantville, NY

National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.

Albany Institute of History of Art, Albany, NY

Grand Rapids Art Museum, Grand Rapids, MI

Northampton-based painter Scott Prior has lived as a working artist in the area since 1971, the year of his graduation from the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a BFA in printmaking. A founding member of a small cohort of painters known as the “Valley Realists,” Prior is a Contemporary Realist who paints “contemporary Americana” (Ann Wilson Lloyd, Art in America, July 2002) with a style and finesse informed by his admiration for the Flemish and Dutch Masters. One of the many remarkable facets of the artist’s work is the way in which, in the spirit of Luminist influence, Prior casts the emotional tones of each of his scenes with beautiful variations on light. His paintings are not simply reproductions of what he views, but rather each is a vision – a landscape of sentiment with intricate details that beckon contemplation. Scott Prior has shown in solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States and abroad. His artwork hangs in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the DeCordova Museum, the Danforth Museum, the New Britain Museum of American Art, the Rose Art Museum, and other major public and private collections.

Artist Statement:  

“In New England we live in a world of changing seasons, which, I think, invites an almost sensual awareness of time and its effects. The New England landscape is small and intimate and directs our attention to things close at hand…I learned about making art by studying these things and capturing their surfaces, but always with an awareness that there was something hidden underneath. Although I have never been much of a celebrant of the unconscious I am grateful for the Surrealists’ reminder of the disconnect between objects and their meaning… I have always been fairly comfortable with the isolation and solitude of being an artist. At times I have been described as being detached, but with a sense of humor, of the mordant sort. Like a scientist, I have been an observer, striving to understand things. For many years my paintings were of unpeopled landscapes, tourist places off-season, empty rooms, and still lifes of discordant subject matter. It wasn’t until I saw a lot of Edward Hopper’s paintings in one place that I recognized the significance and emotional power of light. That was thirty years ago, and I am still fascinated by the varied and countless effects of light on the tangible world of my experience.”

Education:

BFA University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA

Selected Public Exhibitions:

2016-17 As We See It: The Collection of Gail and Ernst von Metzsh, New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT

2016-17 Truth and Vision, 21st Century Realism, Wilmington Museum of Art, Wilmington, DE

2016 The Lay of the Land, Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA

2015-16 Director’s Favorites, New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT  

2015 Collecting and Sharing, Trevor Fairbrother, John T. Kirk, and the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth, NH

2013-14 Still Life Lives, Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, MA

2006 Painting Summer in New England, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA

2005 Innocence, New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT

2005 Human Figures by the World’s Art Masters, Nagoya/Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Nagoya, Japan

2003 DeCordova Collects: Gifts from Stephen and Sybil Stone, DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA

2002 Painting in Boston: 1950-2000, DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA

2002 Changing Prospects: The View from Mount Holyoke, Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, South Hadley, MA

2001 Landscapes Seen and Imagined: Sense of Place, DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA

2000 Figure, Fantasy and Illusion, Selections from the Arthur S. Goldberg Collection, Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham, MA

1999-2000 Light on the Familiar, The Paintings of Scott Prior” DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA and the University Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA*

1999 Re-Presenting Representation IV, Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, NY

1998 Capturing the Sublime; Contemporary Landscape Painting, Fuller Museum of Art, Brockton, MA

1998 Valley Realists, Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham, MA

1998 New England Impressions, Painting from Life, Attleboro Museum, Attleboro, MA

1996-7 Faces and Figures in Contemporary Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

1996 Reinventing Realism: Contemporary American Perspective, Everhart Museum, Scranton, PA

1994 The Label Show, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

1993 SELF-aMUSEd The Contemporary Artist as Observer and Observed, Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, MA

1991 The Object: Found, Observed, Imagined, Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, MA

1991 Illustrating Nature – The Art of Botany, National Academy of Design, New York, NY

1990 Bergen Museum, Paramus, NJ*

1988 Contemporary New England Portraits, Westfield State College, Westfield, MA

1987 New Work by Old Friends, DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA

1987 The Beautiful, The Sublime, The Picturesque, Newton Arts Center, Newton, MA

1987 Survey-Eight, Zone Art Center, Springfield, MA

1986 Boston Collects, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

1984 Urban Visions/Countryside Views, University Art Gallery, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH

1984 Emerging Massachusetts Painters, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

1983 Eleven Alumni, Fine Arts Center Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA

1982 A Private Vision: Contemporary Art from the Graham Gund Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

1982 Herbert Plimpton Collection of Realist Art, Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA

1980 Directions in Realism, Danforth Museum, Framingham, MA

1980 Realism in New England, Northeastern University, Boston, MA

1979 Art of the State, Recipients of Massachusetts Artists Foundation Fellowships, Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA

1978 Art from Corporate Collections, Whitney Museum Downtown, New York, NY

1976 Patron’s Choice – Artists Under 35, DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA

1975 9th Annual Print Exhibition, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY

1974 Univeresity of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA*

1973 New Talent in New England, DeCordova Musuem, Lincoln, MA

1972 Hampshire College, Amherst, MA*

*Solo Exhibition

Selected Collections:

American Express, New York, New York

Berkshire Art Museum, Pittsfield, Massachusetts

Boston Public Library

W.C. Bradley Co., Columbus, Georgia

Comptroller of the Currency, Washington, D.C.

Danforth Art Museum, Framingham, Massachusetts

DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, Massachusetts

Fidelity Investments, Boston, Massachusetts

Gardner, Carton and Douglas, Chicago, Illinois

Graham Gund, Cambridge, Massachusetts

IBM, New York, New York

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts

New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut

New England Life, Boston, Massachusetts

On Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Ropes & Gray, Boston, Massachusetts

Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts

St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York

Texaco, White Planes, New York

Wellington Management, Boston, Massachusetts

Ruth and John D. West Collection, The Rahr-West Art Musuem, Manitowic, Wisconsin

William Brinks Old Hofer Gilson & Loine, Chicago, Illinois

Berkshire-based artist Jim Schantz has been painting the Western Mass landscape since he moved to the area in 1982. Schantz is best known for his staggering land, sea, and skyscapes that frame and share emotion as well as outdoor scenes. His work confronts the viewer with the sublimity of nature. Sometimes subtle and tranquil, sometimes tempestuous, Schantz’s paintings ponder through the depths of human feeling, each eliciting an immediate, almost primal reaction. Although influenced by a Romanticist appreciation for the greatness of nature, and a hint of Fauvist color-boldness, Schantz’s art never capitulates to gloom or agitation. Portraying mood with variations in light, he renders strong emotion, concealing and revealing in turn through careful layers of oil paint, through the coloration of each cloud and the twist of each rivulet. Schantz’s work imparts his vision, instilling in any observer the admiration and reverence for nature that he so tangibly experiences.

Schantz studied at the Hornsey School of Art at the Middlesex Polytechnic Institute in London and Syracuse University in New York, graduating Magna Cum Laude with a BFA in painting (1977). After attending the Brooklyn Museum School and then the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Schantz went on to attain his Masters of Fine Arts in Painting from the University of California – Davis (1981). He has exhibited internationally and throughout the United States. His works can be found in many public collections, including the Berkshire Museum, Center for Spiritual Life at Emerson College, Lowe Art Museum, Syracuse University, the Art Complex Museum, Duxbury, Massachusetts, Nelson Museum, U.C. Davis, Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Skidmore College, Simon’s Rock of Bard College, and University of Massachusetts. Schantz’s paintings have been featured in exhibitions at the Springfield Museum of Fine Arts, the Fuller Museum of Art, Brockton, the Albany Institute of Art, and the Brooklyn Museum and the Berkshire Museum.

Education:

1981 Master of Fine Arts, University of California, Davis, CA

1980 Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, MA

1978 Brooklyn Museum School, Brooklyn, NY

1977 Bachelor of Fine Arts, Magna Cum Laude, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY

1975 Hornsey School of Art, Middlesex Polytechnic Institute, London, England  

Selected Public Exhibitions

2015 The Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA *

2010 Ghetto Museum Terezin, Terezin, Czech Republic

2007 Leighton Studios, Banff Art Centre, Banff Alberta, Canada

2001 Normal Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, MA

1997 Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA

1997 Springfield Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, MA

1996 Springfield Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, MA

1995 Schenectady Museum, NY

1995 Springfield Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, MA

1993 Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA

1993 “Byobu Screen and Other Works” * Fuller Museum, Brockton, MA

1993 Arno Maris Gallery, Westfield State College, Westfield, MA

1992 Binney Art Gallery, Wilbraham and Monson Academy, Wilbraham, MA *

1992 Heritage State Park Museum, Holyoke, MA

1991 Teikyo Post University, Waterbury, CT *

1991 The Art Complex Museum, Duxbury, MA

1990 Albany Institute of History and Art, NY

1988 Atrium Gallery, Simon’s Rock of Bard College, Great Barrington, MA *

1987 Rice Gallery, Albany Institute of History and Art, Albany, NY

1987 Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA *

1982 California State College, Stanislaus, Turlock, CA

1981 Gorman Museum, University of California, Davis, CA

1981 Hayward Arts Center, Hayward, CA

1981 Memorial Union Gallery, University of California, Davis, CA

1980 Richmond Arts Center, Richmond, CA

1979 University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire, WI

1978 Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY

1977 Fairbanks Gallery, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY

1977 Lowe Art Museum, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY

* Solo Public Exhibition