Stories and Studies
May 15 – July 31, 2016
The latest art exhibition, Stories and Studies, will be on display upstairs in The Wood’s Exhibition Hall. Married artists, Nicholas McNally and Christina Mastrangelo, have come together professionally to create their first joint exhibition featuring a mix of 30 drawings and paintings. McNally’s work is inspired by classic literature: the personality of an author, the action of a scene, and the variety of possibilities in interpreting a theme while Mastrangelo’s work is a selection of studies from life: the elegance of a portrait, the subtleties of emotion, and the quiet beauty of nature.
“My work originates in text, but focus on the concept, the theme, or the feeling of a story.” says McNally, “I read the underlying themes of classic literature as presented to me through the writer’s tools of character, setting, and plot. When I find a theme that resonates with my own experience, I am driven to respond with my own tools of line, shape, and color.”
Although each artist utilizes these same basic tools to express their artistic visions, the inspiration comes from two very different places, McNally drawing more on an inner imagination and literary characters and Mastrangelo coming from a more externally influenced place of physical objects and real life models. “All of the still-life paintings I do are painted from life using the sight-size method; no photographs are used. It is really a tradition of centuries past,” says Mastrangelo.
Both artists feel drawn to classical, old world influences, objects and books and this is reflected in the works of art on display in Stories and Studies. “I am heavily influenced by 19th century Europe, personal stories, and Humanism, and my paintings often contain imagery or objects from an older Europe,” says Mastrangelo. “I agree,” says McNally, “I am influenced by classical literature such as, The Odyssey, The Divine Comedy and the works of Hans Christian Andersen rather than more modern literary works.”