Sky Light & Landscapes

The Sky Light: Landscapes, Traditional & Contemporary exhibition currently on display at the Oglethorpe University Museum of Art is particularly special to me. I had the grand opportunity to do the photography for the marketing materials for the exhibition...my name is everywhere! How fun is that?!

Now then, for this post, I'll share some images from the Sky Light gallery (photographed during a visit to the Museum yesterday, not for marketing purposes), however photography is not permitted in the other galleries, but I'll discuss a few of my favorites from that showing.

Sky Light: Landscapes, Traditional & Contemporary, OUMA

Sky Light: Landscapes, Traditional & Contemporary features 19th and 20th Century paintings, drawings, and prints from the Oglethorpe University Museum of Art (OUMA) permanent collection and local private collections, as well as late 20th and 21st Century paintings by emerging artists.

In the Skylight Gallery, to your immediate left when entering the Museum, there are large scale oils by Courtney J. Garrett, Lary Gray, and Charlotte Terrell.

The above painting, Flag Down (2007), by Larry Gray, is one of the large scale pieces in the Skylight Gallery, and this one is one of my favorites in that gallery...the colors and drama are striking and beg the imagination to not reconcile if this is a true phenomena, but to just enjoy the beauty presented.

Sky Light: Landscapes, Traditional & Contemporary, OUMA

This one (above) is another personal favorite of the pieces on display in the Skylight Gallery. Dissipation of Composition No. 9 (2012), by Courtney J. Garrett, shows some of the most remarkable, high-contrast lighting I've had the pleasure to see up close. 

From the entire exhibition, my absolute favorite piece is The Fallen Tree: Cottage by a River Through a Woodland Gorge with a Castle on the Promontory Above (c. 1810), by William Havell (British, 1782-1857). Albeit a mouthful of a title, the content of the piece is just as complex...that's one of the things I like about it so much. 

You know how you can spend hours exploring a Salvador Dali work? Fallen Tree is much the same. Even during yesterday's Museum visit I was discovering new aspects of the painting that I'd not yet seen...discovery of this kind is sublime.

Sky Light: Landscapes, Traditional & Contemporary, OUMA

Back to the Skylight Gallery...the above piece, Late Day Games (2007) by Larry Gray, is a spectacular contrast of sky colors. The closest I've come to seeing this in real life was when I lived in Wyoming, where there are some of the most beautiful sunsets...exquisite sunsets!

There are two pieces by Maurice de Vlaminck (French, 1876-1918) in The Shelley and Donald Rubin Gallery. Le Route is spectacular, but the one I like even more is a 1923 lithograph, Eviron de Trivel. Seek it out when you visit...you'll be glad you did.

Sky Light: Landscapes, Traditional & Contemporary, OUMA

Winter's Closing (2007), by Larry Gray

Sky Light: Landscapes, Traditional & Contemporary, OUMA

Listless Summer (2013), by Charlotte Terrell

Sky Light: Landscapes, Traditional & Contemporary, OUMA

I'm loving this one too, also on display in the Skylight Gallery. Dissipation of Composition No. 5 (2012), is another one by Courtney J. Garrett.

The signature piece of the exhibition, Paturage aux moutons, cote normande (ca. 1882-1886) is by the famed Eugene Boudin (1824-1898). Claude Monet studied with Boudin and said of his time studying with him, "It was if at last my eyes were opened. If I have become a painter it is entirely due to Eugene Boudin."

Sky Light: Landscapes, Traditional and Contemporary is on display at the Oglethorpe University Museum of Art (closed Mondays) through March 9. This exhibition was organized by OUMA Director Elizabeth Peterson and Collections Manager John Daniel Tilford.