My paintings tend to be a map of my life and my thinking, and these are what I spent my time doing during an odd time in our history.

My last show opened March 7, 2020. For many of us that was the last time we were together indoors in a large group. I treasure those memories.

Within two weeks of that opening we were under a Stay Home order to reduce the spread of Covid and in early April I began to mail out drawings, a poem, and a note to friends, family, people I wanted to thank. I sent out over 200 drawings. The Pandemic Drawing Project brought me joy and took all the creativity I had during that period.

Except for one painting, this show was created entirely in 2021. Painting during the pandemic – like a lot of things – was challenging. For me the pandemic combined with the election, the lies about vote fraud, the attack on our democracy – it was hard to turn away from the relentlessly bad and strange news. So I focused on health, family, friends, and witnessed as history unfolded around us.

Here’s how I found my way back to my work.

My studio is on Samish Island on the coast of Washington State and the Skagit Land Trust purchased a beach on Padilla Bay near my house. I started going there nearly every day at the end of my run or walk, to see what was up with the water and the sky that day. Then I bought muck boots and started to venture out onto the tidelands to have a better view of the water flowing over sand and rocks. I’m especially interested in reflections and when I’m ankle deep in water I can see more, and more interesting, reflections. Especially sky and cloud reflections.

This show began with muck boots, standing ankle deep in salt water, watching the patterns of water and ripples of fluid reflections. It brought me joy and hope.

Lisa McShane

Lisa McShane “January 6, 2021″, Oil on Linen on Wood Panel, 24″ x 40”, 2021

Lisa McShane “Beach”, Oil on Linen on Aluminum, 38″ x 54.25″ , 2021

Lisa McShane”Green Lake” Oil on Linen, 36″ x 36″, 2021

About the artist

Lisa uses layers of oil paint and glazing to capture deep waters, the pattern of waves on wet sand, and the eroded hills of the Pacific Northwest. Her paintings are abstracted, graphic, and focused on light and land and water.

In 2015 she was the Artist in Residence at Petrified Forest National Park and in 2017 was the Artist in Residence at Grand Canyon-Parshant National Monument. One of her paintings, The Sun Sets on the Slope of the Horse Heaven Hills, was on exhibit in the American Embassy in Yemen for several years and Mountains at Dusk is in the collection of the Washington State Governor’s Mansion in Olympia, Washington.

Lisa’s studio is on 15 acres of forest on Samish Island. She’s represented by Smith and Vallee Gallery in Edison, WA.

Lisa McShane

“FLUID REFLECTION”

October 1, 2021 – October 31, 2021

SMITH & VALEE GALLERY

Edison, Washington

Framing Specifications

METRO FLOATING FRAME

Deep Floating Profile: 124
Type: floating frame for 1-1/2″ deep painting
Wood & Finish:  ash frame with pickled white finish
Purchasing Option: unjoined frame cut to size with wedges
Framing Advice: Joining Wood Frames with wedges
Framing Advice: Fitting Floating Frames

As the show was being hung, the virus came. Assumptions collapse into a fog, inside an unfolding unknown. Who would have imagined the immediacy of a quote like Churchill’s “Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the hard may be; for without victory there is no survival ”?
Now it’s all about the space within the house, between homes, towns, states, and countries.

When I was painting these works from 2018 to 2020, New York, the whole country was bustling with energy and life. My works were about mayhem, argumentation, celebration, all together, having a common denominator of an American air, space and light.

First, as a painter, my job is to paint the most spectacular, engaging, relevant, even overwhelming works as possible. And using iconic stories from America’s          Ur-narrative could help to re-arrange the interaction between artist and viewer away from being exclusively subjective. I wanted the subject matter to serve as the boundary lines of a game played out on an open field. With the way I had developed my style and act of painting, especially the sharp edges between reduction, abundance, action and abstraction that I had achieved over my career, I could invite the widest possible participation by many diverse viewers to feel free to participate in the game, completing my paintings for themselves.

Thinking about my work in this stark moment, it’s clear that art is almost exclusively about the power of expression and, above all, beauty. I hope all my work powerfully expresses my sentiments in beautiful forms that can give pleasure to people.

John Bradford 2020

Mayflower November 11, 1620, 2019
acrylic, oil on canvas
48 x 60 in

Washington Returns to Mount Vernon, 2019
acrylic, oil on canvas
48 x 60 in

Plymouth Rock, 2019
acrylic, oil on canvas
48 x 72 in

About the artist

JOHN BRADFORD (b. 1949, Wilmington, Delaware) received his BFA from Cooper Union in 1971 and MFA from Yale University School of Art in 1979. He is the 2011 recipient of prestigious American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Painting. John Bradford’s work has been reviewed in the New York Times, ArtNews, Village Voice, the Jewish Press and Hudson Review.

JOHN BRADFORD

By Land and By Sea

by appointment only

(Originally Scheduled for February 27 – April 25, 2020)

Anna Zorina Gallery New York, NY

FRAMING SPECIFICATIONS

METRO FLOATING FRAME

Profile: 120 & Profile: 124
Type: floating frame for 1-1/2″ deep paintings & 2-1/4” deep paintings
Wood & Finish: unfinished maple
Purchasing Option: cut to size with wedges

Light is the main element in my paintings. I use layers of oil paint and resin, usually over linen, to create deeply luminous paintings of light and the way it falls on land and water. I want my work to breathe and to convey the beauty of our world, though I don’t paint an untouched landscape. I paint a world that includes the impact we have on our lands.

In the west our world is increasingly altered by wildfire smoke and I work to capture that: the strange filter that a blanket of smoke casts on the land that changes the way we see color, bonfires near dry trees, strangely vivid suns and moons, and smoke pouring off a distant forest. Fire moves fast. It’s changing the west in late summer and I’m painting those impacts.

My work is increasingly abstracted. I find I have less to say about specific places, and more to convey about the embrace of light on landscapes, whether I’m looking down at a reflection on a river or at a wide horizon line. I rarely paint onsite; I want distance from the experience so that I can engage my memory and my mind. My images often start with a photo, then are abstracted through rough sketches, then drawings, and finally, the painting.

Okanagan: Fire on the Horizon, 2020, Oil on Linen Panel, 26” x 42”

“Lhaq’te’mish: Morning Fog” on the Nooksack Delta, 2020,
Oil on Linen over Wood Panel, 30” x 20”

“Yakama: Autumn on the River”, Oil on Linen over Aluminum, 20” x 24”

LISA MCSHANE
March 6, 2020 – March 29, 2020
Smith and Vallee Art Gallery
Edison, WA

FRAMING SPECIFICATIONS

METRO FLOATING FRAME

Profile: 124 Profile: 121
Type: floating frame for 1-1/2″ deep paintings
Wood & Finish: ash various finishes
Purchasing Option: cut to size with wedges

ETHER Arts Project, an international nomadic cultural organization that links artists, curators and exhibition spaces, has invited Tania Dibbs to participate with a solo project booth at this premier art fair. With a strong focus on environmental art, which responds to ETHER’s mission, the display includes works from Tania’s Arctic series and her most recent endeavor, The Ripple Effect series, which emphasizes the dynamic between personal choices and collective impact. “It is important to understand that every action that we take and every decision that we make has a consequence. The only way to look into the future is by thinking in the present, even if only by raising the level of consciousness and discourse which is valuable in itself.” the artist commented.

Scramble, 36″ x 48″ acrylic

Melt 60″ x 84″ mixed media on canvas

About the artist

Tania Dibbs is an accomplished mid-career artist originally from Washington D.C., who has been living in Aspen, Colorado, since the 1980’s. With a degree in Biology and Fine Arts, her work explores the jagged intersection between the natural world, humanity and culture through painting and sculpture. She was a pioneer artist in exploring the Anthropocene Era, focusing on the effects of man on the environment with her successful Anthropocene series which she released in 2015. The screens and overlays that she painted over her scenes both highlighted and obscured the masterfully created landscapes beneath, speaking to the beauty of nature as well as to the conflicting yet fantastic constructs of man.

Her work is present in several international collections and she has been recognized with numerous awards, amongst which stand out a residency she did in 2016 in the Arctic Circle.

Tania Dibbs
Art Palm Springs 2020
February 13, 2020 – February 17, 2020
Palm Springs, CA

FRAMING SPECIFICATIONS

METRO FLOATING FRAME

Profile: 120 and Profile: 121
Type: floating frame for 1-1/2″ and 2-1/4″  deep paintings
Wood & Finish: ash unfinished  and black lacquer on ash
Purchasing Option: joined frame

Connally works most clearly with what we recognize as gestural abstraction, associated with Abstract Expressionism. Connally has focused, however, on a notable subset of such gestural painting, one recognized in the heyday of Action Painting and even cited then to link Abstract Expressionism with vital precedents (e.g. the late Impressionism of Monet, the early abstractions of Kandinsky). Like such precedents, Connally distinguishes herself as, in essence, a landscape painter, albeit one who paints the landscape she feels as much as she paints the one she sees. Indeed, Connally’s stress on sensuous form and color experience through reference to natural phenomena (in particular vegetation and water, normally in motion) places itself squarely in a tradition particular to the American experience. John Marin’s expansive rhapsodies on the local landscape exemplify this tradition, as does Joan Mitchell’s gradual – but ultimately thorough – adoption of landscape qualities and references. This sort of “plein air abstraction” defines Connally’s work, but her particular touch and palette, and her close and vibrant sense of atmosphere, distinguishes it.

Peter Frank, LA Art Critic

Connie Connally, Tigers on the River Bank, 2019, oil on canvas, 8 x 10 inches

Connie Connally Windflower II 2019 30×30 oil on canvas

Connie Connally, Rose Garden, oil on canvas,30 x 30 inches

About the artist

Connie Connally paints stunning canvases of complex elegance, with imagery that merges harmoniously and nearly completely both representational reference and powerful abstraction. Connally’s poetic colorscapes, with their expressive brushwork, sweeping gestural marks and animated cadence, reflect the artist’s passion for distilling the essence of her observations of nature and situate her work as the vital interplay between memory and imagination. Her palette of organic color and calligraphic brushstroke combine to serve as imprint of the artist’s profound love of being in nature and the desire that her painting reflect both her exterior and interior experience of it.

Citing Joan Mitchell as an important influence on her work, Connally employs exuberant, impassioned colors laid on her canvases in a pictorial strategy that teeters between the action painting of her abstract expressionist forebears and a more refined personal style that modulates the strokes and dabs that comprise her surfaces. Her layers of brushstroke read less as agitated ruptures and more like intuitive, sensual experiences rendered as prismatic atmospheres of color and tone. Rich, multi-layered surfaces of color morph, coalesce and scatter in quietly energetic rhythms that evoke the experience of being surrounded by nature.

Connie Connally

Wild By Nature

January 11, 2020 – February 15, 2020

George Billis Gallery

Los Angeles, CA

Framing Specifications

METRO FLOATING FRAME

Deep Floating Profile: 121
Type: floating frame for 1-1/2″ deep painting
Wood & Finish: unfinished maple
Purchasing Option: joined frame
Framing Advice: Fitting Floating Frames

Beautiful and seductive, these landscapes contain, but only partially conceal, a visceral howl. My understanding of them fluctuates between seeing them as landscapes, then as abstractions, and finally again as landscapes….What I love most is the time it takes to truly absorb and appreciate their structure and beauty. For me, that is a slow and delightfully rewarding experience. – Bill Scott

Ying Li, Cherry Blossom, Oil on linen, 36 x 36 inches

Ying Li, Grassy Waters #1, Oil on linen, 24 x 30 inches

Ying Li, Wintry Garden, Oil on linen, 24 x 48 inches

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Born in Beijing, China, Ying Li studied painting at Anhui Teachers University where she was later an instructor. She immigrated to the United States in 1983 and received an MFA from Parsons School of Design. Li’s work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including internationally at Centro Incontri Umani Ascona (Switzerland), ISA Gallery (Italy), Enterprise Gallery (Ireland), and Museum of Rochefort-en-Terre (France); in New York City at Lohin Geduld Gallery, Elizabeth Harris Gallery, Tibor de Nagy Gallery, Lori Bookstein Fine Art, The National Academy Museum, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters; also, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery (Haverford College), the James Michener Museum in Doylestown, and the Hood Museum at Dartmouth College.

FRAMING SPECIFICATIONS

Ying Li The Secret Garden, Insects and Butterflies, oil on linen, 16 x 16 inches

METRO FLOATING FRAME

Profile: 121 and 122
Type: floating frame for 3/4″ and 1 1/2″ deep paintings
Wood & Finish: maple clear finish with pickled white finish
Purchasing Option: joined frame

Andrea called to order some frames because she was working on an exhibition. Since she works in larger sizes, we thought it would be interesting to show her framing in her studio. She said she wasn’t a video expert but agreed to give it a try. She sent us videos of each different aspect of the framing and we edited them.

Pramuk works on large Ampersand Panels and frames them with our Metro Floater Frames. Although our frames and cradles can be purchased completely joined, she purchases them unassembled to save money on shipping.

Framing large oversize work requires that your studio layout is well organized. In addition you need to have the proper tools. Andrea shows some techniques on how to join a cradle with a crossbar as well as joining the floater frame and attaching the artwork that we think you will find useful.

Additional tip:
She did tell us that the adjustable sawhorses make all the difference in her workspace for both framing and painting big. They are not a huge investment ($35-$50/pair)  and they fold up when she’s not working in the big area of the space.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Texas painter, Andrea Pramuk, creates organic, drawing-based abstractions. Her pictures may seem familiar at first glance, but on closer inspection, they are not things or places that exist, but rather lyrical subjects whose dialogue originates out of line, color and light. She looks to ephemeral subject matter that is constant throughout time, reminiscent of stone, sea, sky and botanical forms – all traditional painting subjects.

Andrea uses acrylic paint and dye-based pigments within a system that includes a carefully mixed color palette, paint pouring and drawing techniques, working both flat and at the easel. She arrived at this current method of working due to physical limitations with manual dexterity and also for technical reasons like drying times and limited time constraints. Pouring paint for Andrea is like building sediment layers in stone, creating wave patterns in sand and bringing about tree rings born out of drying paint puddles shrinking one ring at a time. Her process and subject matter, therefore, are both temporal and symbiotic. Poetry comes into play with her choice of titles, often borrowed from music lyrics, poetry or books, while also folding in themes from current events.

Andrea Pramuk
Nosotros
May 31- July 7, 2019
Georgetown Art Center, Georgetown, TX

FRAMING SPECIFICATIONS

METRO FLOATER FRAME

Profile: 121
Type: floater frame with cradle
Wood & Finish: maple with charcoal finish
Purchasing Option: cut to size with wedges

“I need lots of color in an image that strikes me. I use a lot of drips and flung slashes of paint. The result is expressive pieces in which swaths of yellow, orange, and violet evoke paths and fields and features a mix of abstraction and figuration, with vibrant bright hues, visible brushwork, and a sense of calm.”

Cantrell has been painting and making prints full time for the past 20 years, most recently large‐scale woodcuts and landscape paintings in an expressionist gestural  style.

“Rising Mist,” 48″x48″, oil on canvas

“October Gold,” oil on canvas, 36″x48″

“Venice Violet” oil on canvas 36″x36″


Helen Cantrell “March Snow Sunset,” 48″x36″ oil on canvas
Helen Cantrell: A Sense of Place
May 24  – July 28, opening reception May 24 5-7 pm
The White Gallery, Lakeville, CT

FRAMING SPECIFICATIONS

“Harlem River Bridge, 36″x36” oil on canvas.

METRO FLOATING FRAME

Profile: 122 and 124
Type: floating frame for 3/4″ and 1-1/2″ deep paintings
Wood & Finish: ash pickled white finish
Purchasing Option: joined frame

“I paint directly from subjects in my familiar surroundings. The poetry of place arises from my own personal mythology: a longing for lost homes; a remembrance of water; of daydreaming looking out of windows: of silence. I occasionally make a pilgrimage, but for the most part, it’s just there, in front of me. From my observations and emotions I try to make good paintings.”

Known for his printmaking and for his distinguished work in public and eco-art, this exhibit at Blue Mountain Gallery is his first show in NYC since his return to painting.

“From a Granite Shelf, Stonington”, 36″ x 48″ oil on canvas 2019

“Night Lights in a Granite Quarry”, oil on linen, 30″ x 38″, 2019

“Winter Lights”, oil on linen, 36″ x 34″, 2019

ABOUT THE ARTIST

After teaching for thirty-four years, first at Pratt Graphics Center then as professor of art at LIU/Post, Mills has returned to painting full time. He maintains studios in New Jersey and the Catskills.

Mills has been artist in residence at the Teaneck Creek Conservancy and a visiting Fellow at the Jentel Foundation, Ucross Foundation and the Virginia Center for Creative Arts. Mills has received grants from numerous arts foundations and state and federal agencies including the NJ State Council on the Arts, Puffin Foundation, Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, USEPA, NJDEP and NJ TRANSIT.

Richard Kirk Mills: Recent Paintings – Windows and Landscapes
May 21, 2019 – June 15, 2019
Blue Mountain Gallery, New York, NY

FRAMING SPECIFICATIONS

“Earnest on the Lookout”, oil on canvas, 24″ x 24″, 2019

METRO FLOATING FRAME

Profile: 121
Type: floating frame for 1-1/2″ deep paintings
Wood & Finish: unfinished cherry
Purchasing Option: cut to size with wedges

Vaughn has focused his energies as an artist working in landscapes for over thirty years. Vaughn approaches his work with a quiet contemplativeness that reflects the serene aspects of the natural world and reveals the underlying spiritual nature that can be found in the environments he portrays.

Crabapple Blossoms, 2019, oil on canvas, 30″x30”

Last Light, 2018, oil and acrylic on canvas, 40″x40″

Sunlit Water Lily
2019, Oil and acrylic on canvas 40″x40″

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Jeffrey Vaughn, from Alton, Illinois, received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1978 from Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, and his Master of Arts degree in 1981, and Master of Fine Arts degree in 1983 from the University of Dallas.

His paintings have been published in New American Paintings, Fine Art Connoisseur, American Art Collector and reviewed in the American Arts Quarterly and the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

His work can be found in numerous public and private collections such as the U.S. Department of State, Washington, DC; Anheuser-Busch Inc., St. Louis, MO; Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest, Louisville, KY; and Kentucky Public Radio, Louisville, KY.

  Jeffrey Vaughn
April 30, 2019 – May 25, 2019
George Billis Gallery
New York, NY

FRAMING SPECIFICATIONS

New Blossoms, 2018, oil and acrylic on canvas, 40″x60″

METRO FLOATING FRAME

Profile: 121
Type: floating frame for 1-1/2″ canvas paintings
Wood and Finish: unfinished maple wood frame
Purchasing Option: unjoined frame cut to size with wedges