New Jersey
“But the walls of the garden were disappearing, and the distinction between it and the landscape beyond became harder and harder to find. Renaissance Italian gardens had been built by preference upon slopes that gave views of the countryside beyond, connecting the garden to the world.”
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Growing up in central New Jersey, I had little idea that I was surrounded by cool places to see art in person. Now living back in my home state, I wanted to share a few of my favorite local places for art excursions.
I came across ArtYard by accident and was blown away I hadn’t heard of it before. What was this beautiful contemporary art space doing in a quaint river town? ArtYard was founded by a group of artists and encompasses a few buildings in Frenchtown, sharing a wide range of programming. During my visit, I saw a show of Janet Ruttenberg’s massive Central Park paintings. I believe they will reopen in September, by appointment.
Grounds for Sculpture is a 42 acre park, home to 300 contemporary sculptures and 6 indoor galleries that show temporary exhibits. The organization puts on educational workshops, concerts, and performances. It’s a good place to visit on a day you’d rather be outdoors, and I think there is something special about seeing the art and gardens as the seasons change.
Main Street Gallery is a great place to see some of my work in person locally. The owner Jen is an absolute joy to work with, and I always enjoy going in to see what’s on display. You can expect to find a selection of work that speaks to the local coastal community along with a wider range of figurative and abstract contemporary art. Some of my favorite pieces are the etchings by Helen Frank, a painter/printmaker who was recently inducted into The Met’s permanent collection.
I consider this museum a hidden gem of New Jersey. The permanent collection of artifacts and paintings is incredible, and they usually have a more contemporary exhibit going on as well. They are technically closed right now, but there is plenty to explore on their website until the museum reopens.
Another great art space located in Frenchtown. Founded by painter John Schmidtberger, SFA gallery shares the work of mid to late-career artists. The few shows I’ve seen speak to the painterly painter in me, with a variety of life paintings reminiscent of Fairfield Porter.
I’m proud to share a new painting created for the Ocean County Historical Society. The museum houses an incredible collection of Native American artifacts in addition to numerous exhibits about local history. Recently, the organization underwent a major renovation, and I was commissioned to do a painting that showed what life may have looked like in the Ocean County, New Jersey area for our native peoples.
The process from our initial meeting took over a year to complete. After learning about their collection and vision for the project, I presented the Historical Society with three different paintings. The studies below were painted in gouache, small concepts that were to be enlarged for the nearly 5x8’ panel.
The most difficult part of the project was technical. Museum display expert Stan Cain built a custom, concave wood panel so the painting would fit seamlessly into the surrounding display. Canvas is my preferred painting surface, and figuring out how to glue this material to the curved panel required some creative problem solving and nearly 400 lbs. of cat litter.
For the actual painting, I chose to scale my miniature painting by hand. Over the course of four weeks on location, I built up the image intuitively with large washes of paint followed by small bits of color.
Hundreds of grade school students tour the Historical Society each year to learn about the area. It is the very school system I attended as a child- I vividly recall building a Lenape longhouse on one of our class trips, one of many experiences that kindled my interest in times past. It feels special that my image will help future generations visualize what came before them. I would like to thank the folks at OCHS for being so welcoming and supportive of my vision for their Lenape painting.
If you are located in New Jersey, I encourage you to visit them in person! Please join me and the Historical Society on March 7th from 1-4 PM for the celebration of the Birdsall Room renovation.
Below, you can find available paintings from this project.
Written by Michelle Farro
