The color of joy

One genre, two very different perspectives, at the River Gallery’s upcoming still life exhibit

WHEN: Saturday, May 24 to Saturday, June 21, with an opening reception from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 24.

WHERE: River Gallery - The Art of Living, Narrowsburg, NY.

COST: Free.

CONTACT: rivergalleryny.com

NARROWSBURG, NY — River Valley denizens will have an opportunity to view the perspectives of two very different still life artists in the upcoming exhibit by Katie and Jennie Reinhardt at the River Gallery.

Influenced by living for over a decade in Latin America, Katie is primarily a colorist. She received her B.A. from the University of Michigan and her M.A. in Art Therapy from NYU, and as a trained art therapist working for many years in an adult psychiatric hospital, she knows the power of color to evoke feelings.

Recently, the influence of Chinese art has begun to permeate her work. After seeing the Imperial Treasures of China exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, she has begun to explore the many possibilities for reinterpreting and assimilating Chinese motifs in her art. Chinese robes are colorful and provide an interesting background for her still lifes. In Chinese culture, everything in the universe can be represented by color, which symbolized status, authority, emotions, virtue, needs etc.

As an art therapist, Katie used art with her patients primarily as a healing process to make them feel better. As an artist, her objective is to enliven the senses with color and give the viewer pleasure and a sense of optimism and possibility.

A letter received from a purchaser of one of her patients recently bears out this intent:

“Every one of your paintings make my heart sing. Your splendidly colored flowers cry out, scream out color in the gray of winter. Somehow these paintings shout: Life, Live, Enjoy, Believe, See Beauty, Have Faith!”

Katie’s daughter-in-law, Jennie, also paints still lifes, but with a more traditional, realistic approach. As part of the same exhibit, they provide the public with a chance to look at the same genre from two very different perspectives.