Area residents and visitors are invited to stop by The Art Garage to observe watercolorist Nancy R. Pettibone demonstrate her approach with the popular watercolor medium 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 15 and Saturday, Aug. 22.
“Comfortably installed in the wide-open Middle Bay Gallery amidst her abstract paintings, Pettibone will demonstrate what is possible with only a few elements: the water, the color, the paper, the brushes and of course you — all on an equal footing,” according to a news release.
A practitioner of ‘slow painting,’ she said, “I would like to teach slowness, and beauty to open your experience with this amazing medium.”
Seating will be provided for gallery visitors.
Pettibone’s watercolors are featured in the current exhibition, Powering the Grid, which also displays works by two other artists: Trevor Wilson, graphite in paper and Ada Yonenaka, indigo-died textiles and hand-stamped works on paper. Works by Wilson and Yonenaka also are on display in both galleries.
Watercolor has been a major part of Pettibone’s life for 70 years. She has stipulated that all proceeds from any sale of her work shall benefit the Art Garage programs, the release stated.
Pettibone lives and works in Charlotteville, where for many years she and her late husband, artist Richard Pettibone, made art decade after decade in a restored farmhouse. Artistic early on, as a young teen at Cass Technical High School in her hometown of Detroit, Michigan, she was awarded scholarships to the Detroit Society for Arts and Crafts and the Philadelphia Museum School.
She was a commercial toy designer for 30 years and is “the mother” of the American versions of Paddington Bear, Peter Rabbit and Babar, the release stated.
She has exhibited locally at the Smithy and Gallery 53, as well as in Boston, New York and the Netherlands, in both group and solo exhibitions. Her broad interests range from replicating iconic Rembrandt tulips from Old Master Dutch paintings, to creating large scale sculptures and paintings that investigate galactic space.
“A grid does not have to be flat,” she said of her watercolor drawings. “Shapes can flow through or rise above it. Making chaos or creating order.”
The Art Garage is located at 689 Beaver Meadow Road in Cooperstown.