Ellen Granter and Michele Dangelo - July 27 to August 9, 2013

Two new shows open Saturday, July 27 at Left Bank Gallery: Ellen Granter's "Golden Rules" and Michele Dangelo's "moreCOLOR." Both shows are at Left Bank's 25 Commercial Street, Wellfleet location and begin with a reception on July 27 from 6 to 8pm.

Ellen Granter grew up in upstate New York and received a BA in political science and a masters in Chinese history from the University of Vermont. She studied Mandarin Chinese for seven years and lived in Hong Kong and Beijing. The influence of her time in China is always present, and especially evident in this recent collection, "Golden Rules."

“My paintings express my passion for my favorite subjects, and my desire to create images that are beautiful and pure," she says in her artist statement. "For me, the point is not to create a souvenir of a place, or an accurate illustration, but rather to try to capture the barest essence and to create luminous, sparely composed paintings while still revealing emotional undercurrents. I enjoy stripping away detail and balancing the composition over large fields of color, making small spaces between things, and overlooked everyday subjects come more clearly into focus.”

After moving to Boston, Ellen became a graphic designer. As an antidote to the constraints of a computer-intensive graphic design career, she began painting. As time went on Ellen became integrated with painting. To brush dabs of oil on a surface in a human effort to capture the sublime is a challenge that has made her hyperaware of the textures, shapes, and patterns of daily life. She believes that a beautiful painting is both a gift of vision and a testament of appreciation for our short lives here on this beautiful Earth.

Michele Dangelo left a business career to pursue art in 1990. Primarily self-taught, she has spent little time in classes, preferring to look and experiment. Her inspiration is Robert Henri, the American Realist painter, who said, “Let nothing but the things which are of utmost importance to you have any place. The more simply you see, the more simply you will render.”

"Memories inspire my work," she says. "A critical component of my work is a basic icon - a house, dress, or boat - that proposes challenging, thoughtful ideas and speaks to the human condition.  Each picture is a multi-generational storehouse of memory and experience.  Simple, yet complex, iconic images in my work have come to suggest a range of emotions... because the forms are more conceptual than real they reflect the ambiguous and evoke the ambivalent.  Often they trigger a longing for pleasure, comfort, security and permanence, while transcending borders, cultures, and socio-economic class."

Both artists will be at Left Bank gallery for a reception the evening of July 27, from 6 to 8pm.

Ellen Granter: "Golden Rules"
Michele Dangelo: "moreCOLOR"
July 27 - August 9, 2013
Reception July 27, 6-8pm
Left Bank Gallery
25 Commercial Street, Wellfleet