Panorama
At 13FOREST Gallery it is our mission to celebrate the diversity of arts that New England has to offer. To that end, we are pleased to present Panorama, an exhibition that showcases a range of painting approaches from figurative to abstract through the work of artists Paul Beckingham, Lynette Haggard and Bonita LeFlore. The artists' points of view are apparent in their handling of color, form and light; their differing perspectives highlight the full potential of paint to deepen our appreciation of the world around us.
Although each artist works with the same compositional elements, the way they manipulate them creates vastly different results. Beckingham's paintings emphasize detail, his eye for photorealism conveying textures and lighting that transform everyday scenes into something to marvel over. Working on an unprimed canvas, LeFlore renders scenes of architecture through bold shapes in washes of vibrant color that heighten the beauty of the spaces we inhabit and sometimes abandon. Haggard draws on her personal childhood history of exploring and foraging for materials on her family farm; her memories and discoveries make their way into her paintings in the form of unusual shapes, weathered textures and her emphasis on color relationships.
Panorama features a variety of work from each artist, including one piece they were asked to make specifically for this exhibition based on the prompt that they paint something "iconically New England." Their responses to the prompt draw out the distinctions between their processes and how they approach inspiration, demonstrating the breadth of possibilities -- from photorealism to abstraction and everything in between -- that the practice of painting offers.
New paintings by Paul Beckingham, Lynette Haggard and Bonita LeFlore
On view March 21 - July 10, 2020
Sat 3/21: Opening Day for Panorama
A Closer Look - behind the scenes of Panorama
Eye of the Beholder - an online conversation with the artists of Panorama
Panorama Tour - a walk-through of our current exhibition Panorama with Gallery Owner Marc Gurton and Gallery Director Caitee Hoglund
Preview Panorama
Panorama - A Closer Look
Video by Nick Noyes
Tour Panorama
Eye of the Beholder - Panorama Artist Talk
About the Artists
Paul Beckingham is a contemporary realism oil painter based in New England. Mostly self-taught, Beckingham's work reflects a blend of nostalgic and everyday subjects, natural and synthetic, framed in dramatic light. He finds that capturing the effects of light in an ordinary scene elevates it to a compelling narrative. When combining light effects with a mix of impressionistic and photorealistic elements the results can be arresting. Beckingham is a member of Oil Painters of America and his paintings can be found in private collections in the United States, United Kingdom and Germany.
Lynette Haggard has maintained her art-making practice for over 20 years and lives in the greater Boston area. She exhibits her work nationally, and holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Her artistic interests lie with geometry and rigorous exploration of compositional tensions between materials, form, shape and color. Haggard is a 2018 Fellowship recipient at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts. She has exhibited at the Painting Center (New York City), Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Art Complex Museum, Attleboro Arts Museum, Danforth Museum, New Hampshire Institute of Art, Saco Museum, Whistler Museum and the Copley Society.
Bonita LeFlore is a New England artist best known for her large paintings referencing the architecture of forgotten places. She studied at the Art Students League in New York, graduated from Syracuse University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting, and attended Pratt Institute's Masters program for painting. Her work is in many private collections across the United States and internationally. Influenced by the color field paintings of Helen Frankenthaler and the vivid palette of Joan Mitchell, LeFlore finds working with acrylic paint on unprimed canvas a medium that lends itself to a transparency that gives her subject matter life.