At Home in Ithaca and Italy
December 2 - 24, 2017
Ithaca’s newest art gallery celebrates the holiday season with “At Home In Ithaca and Italy ” celebrating the works of artist Brian Keeler at home in Ithaca and in his second home painting in the Italian countryside.
“Tis the season to celebrate home. Award winning artist, Brian Keeler, presents works of the Ithaca area and of his adopted home of Italy in an exhibition which runs through December 24th at the North Star Art Gallery at 743 Snyder Hill Road, Ithaca.
You may view the “Home in Ithaca and Italy” at the Open Studio Reception on December 2 from 11am to 4pm, during normal business hours Friday-Sunday from 11-4, and by appointment at 607-323-7684.
The 30 plus works in the show include eight works of well-known historic buildings and scenes in the Ithaca area. Ithaca scenes include: “Spring Pond Light-Ithaca,” “Court Street Light, Ithaca,” “A Victorian Street Scene,” “A Street Corner Called Inspired” of the Gimme Coffee Shop and downtown neighborhood, “Ithaca House-University Avenue,” the diptych painting “Afternoon Light-Ithaca Townscape,” and “Spring Light on Buffalo Street” of an 1862 landmark. Ithaca scenes also include water scenes of Cascadilla waterfall, Buttermilk Falls, Meyers Point and boating on Cayuga Lake. More than twenty paintings show figures and landscapes in Rome, Florence, Umbria, Venice and rural communities in Italy.
Keeler has established himself as one of the preeminent realist painters working in the Northeast today. His distinctive use of color, fine draftsmanship, attention to proportional harmony, and compositional relationships have made his work easily recognizable. Patrons connect with his landscapes. One patron purchased a painting of a location she had never been to and said Keeler’s landscape made her want to go there.
His love of painting landscapes on location in the direct manner of the impressionist and others provides a certain immediacy, and authenticity to his paintings. He has become a passionate student of the Italian Renaissance over his more than twenty years of teaching and travelling in Italy
His works have received a host of awards and acclaim during a career that spans over 30 years. His paintings are widely collected by individuals, corporations and museums. With hundreds of awards over a 30 year career, Keeler was most recently recognized with awards for Best Plein Air Oil in 2017 by Plein Air Magazine; the John Arnot Sr. Award for Oil Painting by the Arnot Art Museum in Spring 2016, and Top award for Oil painting at the Butternut Gallery in Spring 2016.
The current exhibition will please lovers of Ithaca and Italy. The works selected are a virtual trip through the Ithaca area and the Italian countryside. His love of each of these is evident in the rich treatment accorded to each subject.
The gallery website offers original paintings and a variety of related gift items.
