Paintings by Michelle Vigeant; Recent Work by Bill Sharp; Glass Souls by Alicia Saxe

MICHELLE VIGEANT: Paintings

Lions, tigers and bears, oh my! Portraits of big cats on bodies of stars, surreal foxes and colorful swirls of textural “sound” grace the canvas. Michelle Vigeant is a visual artist from Sunderland  who uses a variety of media to paint expressive scenes of animals. She experiences synesthesia, a phenomenon where some people can “see” sound as color or light, and she tries to capture this in her work along with the soul of the creatures she portrays.

WILLIAM SHARP: Recent Works

Recently I turned 80 years old and feel fortunate to be able to paint most everyday in my home studio in Florence. Throughout my 60 years of oil painting I have painted still life, portraiture, plein air; both abstract and realistic. With the recent works included in this show, I have focused on color divisions to create harmony, and color contrasts to create movement. Along with my study of Greek mythology and primitive art, I have been inspired to imagine and paint invented and vibrant compositions.

ALICIA SAXE: Glass Souls

I started painting glass in 1999 as my mother had collected a large pile of blue bottles and I wanted to utilize them in some way. While I had previously painted abstracts, what appeared on the bottles were faces, mostly primitive. Over the next 23 years, I refined the faces so that they were more often based on photos I saw and I would then alter them and add abstract elements. I call them Glass Souls because they are evoking the individual and unique expression within all of us.