KEENE VALLEY — It’s a celebratory time at the Corscaden Barn Gallery this season as 2026 marks its 55th anniversary.
The gallery was founded by the late landscape painter Vry Roussin. It also marks gallerist Martha Corscaden’s 20th anniversary.
“I’m just very happy to continue my family’s tradition of the Art Barn Gallery and happy to reach 55 years altogether,” Corscaden said.
“We love our show this year. Of course, I say that every year. It’s really better than last year. We’re all very happy and pleased.”
The season opens today from 4:30 to 7 p.m. and runs until Labor Day. Artists include Julie Willis, Steve Wyatt, Jeff Wiegand, Michael Gaudreau, Dennon Walantus, Kate Gaudreau, Sid Miller, Sandra Hildreth, Eliza Twichell, Stephanie DeManuelle, Nip Rogers and Garrett Jewett.
JULIE WILLIS
The gallery welcomes newcomer Willis, who works a range from abstract to realistic landscapes.
“The styles are pretty different. I traditionally have painted more realistic, but I’m very interested in abstract, so I sort of shift into abstract landscape and or just abstract,” Willis said.
“I went to art school but wasn’t trained as a painter, but as a designer. We had to take painting classes. I went to Parsons School of Design. You take the painting classes and drawing classes as part of the classwork.”
She worked in graphic design, painted off and on, and has taken many classes and workshops in Boston, Concord Center for the Visual Arts, West Palm Beach Art Armory Center and Boca Raton Museum Art School.
“I’m just really exploring more abstract. I enjoy it, but it’s tough,” she said. “When you paint someone’s face you’re like OK, I got her hair and got her ears and it looks kind of like her and I can stop. With abstract, you’re not sure when you’re finished. You can overcook them pretty fast, I think. So it’s a challenge sometimes to know when to stop.”
Her works are mostly recent and acrylic because they’re easy to travel with. Five of the newest works are abstract.
“There’s one that’s not. It’s a painting of two tennis players, but they don’t have faces. They have heads and but no faces. I really like shadow, and I really color,” she said.
Willis summers in the Adirondacks and winters in Florida.
“I went to camp here in the Adirondacks when I was, like, 9. I really spent a lot of time up in the Adirondacks and Vermont. I hike a lot. I’ve done the 46 three times. That is winding down,” she said.
Her painting practice incorporates photographs she’s taken while out in the wilds.
“There’s a picture that I’ve taken that I love, either something about the shadow, the light, the shape,” Willis said. “I sort of use it as a springboard. Sometimes I try to use different tools. Sometimes I paint with my non-dominant hand to try to not be so controlled.”
A picture may inspire her, but she works it as much as 15 times.
“Whatever original painting is underneath a lot of times is long gone,” she said. “I do like having kind of a base painting underneath, whether it’s a color or a painting, as I like what ends up kind of peeking through underneath. That’s sort of accidental, but sometimes makes the painting more interesting.”
JEFF WIEGAND
As Jeff Wiegand and his wife, Kathryn, became empty nesters, he took courses at the Pelham Art Center, where he was mentored by J.C. English in her portrait painting classes.
Wiegand retired from his investment career on Wall Street and relocated from New Rochelle to his Keene residence in February 2020.
With six offspring around the country, it was supposed to be a way station while they figured out their next move.
Then COVID happened, and they liked Keene so much, they never left.
Besides Corscaden Barn Gallery, Wiegand has exhibited at the Arts Center Lake Placid, High Peaks Artists, Keene Arts, Northwind Fine Arts Online and the Wells Memorial Library.
“I’m really excited to be in the show,” he said. “What’s in the show are works that are typical of what I’m really focusing on now. I’m using a lot of paint. Quite frequently, I’m using a lot of palette-knife technique. I do like working in this way, wet into wet, into my approach to whatever I’m painting.
“It does cause what I call some serendipity. Like some surprising color or some geometric effect that when you step back from it really has meaning, and your brain has fun interpreting it and filling in the gaps, so to speak.”
Wiegand works from real life — places, objects or things.
“I like doing something that when you look at it, it has an immediate impact somehow. It just really grabs your attention. That’s sort of some of the ways that I think about it,” he said.