West Brattleboro, Vt. – Painters Collin Leech and Lori Schreiner are showing their work in a combined summer exhibit at All Souls Church Unitarian Universalist. An opening reception this Saturday, June 11, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m., offers the public an opportunity to meet the artists and learn about their creative process while enjoying refreshments provided by the All Souls Arts Committee.
Showing a variety of large-format and smaller impressionist or expressive landscapes, Collin Leech has been working in a variety of mediums for many years, including oil, encaustic, ink-and-pastel drawing, and acrylic. “This year I have been working on combining these mediums in new ways,” Collin explains. “I have also been thinking about the ways my relationship to the landscape around me is changing.” She attended LaGuardia School for the Arts in New York City and went to Maryland Institute College of Art, taught for many years at Brattleboro’s River Gallery School, and now teaches encaustic collage and plein air painting at Main Street Arts in Saxtons River.
Lori Schreiner’s work includes recent still lifes and a few landscapes. “My work is about finding a dialogue with each painting, about rearranging the objects before me. Finding a hidden relationship between foreground and background, seeing how a purple vase is getting along with a red rose, or the ochre edge of the window frame is clashing with a blue bottle. Asking a question of the painting, Would a sprouting onion or a bowl of lemons falling off the page help this image work?” She considers painting a spiritual practice with ever-changing boundaries and opportunities for immersing oneself in the process.
This exhibit runs through the end of August. Gallery hours are 9 to 12:30 on Monday and Friday, 9 to 12 on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, as well as during worship services and other public events in the building and by appointment.
All Souls Church, aka West Village Meeting House, is at 29 South St., West Brattleboro, across from the village common; take the wooded driveway across South St. from the fire station and head uphill to the church parking area. For further information, call the office at (802) 254-9377.