AUGUST 20 - SEPTEMBER 5, 2010
OPENING RECEPTION FRIDAY, AUGUST 20, 7 - 9 PM
DONALD BEAL
"Land Mysteries"

Donald Beal digs deep into the canvas in his search for form and
color. The new exhibition will include a selection of large and small paintings plus a
collection of delicate pastels.
Talking about his art, Beal says: “Usually, I am non-object oriented. In
the early phases of a painting, it’s about building space, building relations. I am not
going for a particular subject, but let the brushwork suggest a space and then the space
becomes the subject.” Beal layers color and often turns the canvas sideways or upside
down. The forms shift. The perspective is altered. The shape “bubbles up from the
subconscious” and becomes the strident green of summer leaves or the burnt red bark
of a fallen tree trunk. The form reveals itself as the planes of color shift and deepen.
Beal’s inspiration comes from memories of his family home in Down East
Maine, as well as from Provincetown's Beach Forest. The strokes of paint are lush
and heavy. The colors are laid in thick bands that break the painting into abstracted
elements of water, forest and sky. A tree trunk juts violently through a canvas blurring
the foliage behind it while a bird, a grebe or a loon, sits quietly holding a fish in its
mouth. The forest is impenetrable. The tree trunk dominates the canvas and brings the
eye down toward the bird, a surprise that draws the viewer in. A water lily is near its
feet. The revelations appear as if in a flash amid Beal’s layered and textured canvases.
And they comprise the wonder of Beal’s work.
Beal was the featured artist for the Boston Pops 2009 summer concert in
Hyannis, and was commissioned to complete a painting for their poster. He was also
selected to participate in a major book featuring New England artists, expected to be
published in 2011.
Beal studied at the Swain School of Design, the Yale Summer School of Music
and Art, Brooklyn College and at Parsons School of Design where he worked with Paul
Resika and Leland Bell. He has had solo exhibitions at the Prince Street Gallery, New
York (2003), Rising Tide Gallery, Provincetown (1996), Gallery Matrix, Provincetown
(1993-1995), Hopkins Gallery, Wellfleet (1989-1992), and the Julie Heller Gallery,
Provincetown (1991). He has participated in group shows at the Cherrystone Gallery,
Wellfleet (1999, 2002), Maurice Arlos Fine Arts, New York (2001), Schoolhouse Gallery,
Provincetown (2000, 2001), The Painting Center, New York (1999), the Provincetown
Art Association and Museum (1999, 1997, 1987), the Winifsky Gallery, Salem, MA
(1995), the Hillyer Gallery, Northampton, MA (1994), Gallery X, New Bedford, MA
(1992), and the Packard Gallery, Provincetown (1988). He has been on the faculty at
the University of Massachusetts, North Dartmouth since 1999.

AUGUST 20 - SEPTEMBER 5, 2010
OPENING RECEPTION FRIDAY, AUGUST 20, 7 - 9 PM
ROMOLO DEL DEO
"Relics of Restoration"

The sculpture of Romolo Del Deo evokes the sensuality of Classical art and the
time-worn history of archaeological artifacts. The new sculpture restores the lifetime
experiences -- now relics -- of the artist's experiences. Not always easy, life can
destroy, and later, restore that loss hopefully increasing wisdom. "In my sculpture I cut
away all that distracts from the core, all that is not essential to the object itself and its
manifold intent. My works can be seen like a slim delicate quarto volume of poems, they
are parings down to the essential elements of my personal experiences. The sculpture
combines elements of my classical and my formalist training with the poetry of life. I
more than love making these objects. I live these objects. Each is imbued with my life,
becoming a 'relic' of that time and experience. My experiences come to life in my own
hands. The art is in the telling, the breathing of new life into an idea. This becomes a
shared 'restoration,' for at its best, the art breathes new life as well into not just those
who make it, but also those who take that experience in. Art lives in the eyes and the
understanding of those who see it, whether many or few. That is the true meaning of
artistic vision and is the art of life. "Like ancient divinities of woods and fountains, Del
Deo’s nymphs tempt, but not without a sense of hazard. The knowing smile seems
beneficent, but mercurial, as easily changed as the direction of the wind.
Del Deo uses the ancient “lost wax” method of bronze casting. “I work with
bronze because it thinks like I do and we agree. It is a beautiful material.” A mold is
made from a wax or clay original. Wax is poured into the mold to make a model for
casting. Del Deo will continue to change the wax casting, refining the expression until
the ceramic mold is made over the wax. The mold is fired and the wax is “lost” in the
process. After casting, Del Deo will apply a patina, but he also appreciates the texture
handled art acquires. “Sculpture is something that is touched. One of the reasons I
love bronze is its durability. Bronze only looks better with time.”
Del Deo's paper “The Tactile Memory of Bronze” was published for a joint symposium on bronze
presented by the Cortauld Institute of London and the Rodin Museum of Paris. He is currently working on
three outdoor commissions. He studied at the Accademia in Florence, at the Academy of Fine Arts in
Carrara, Italy with marble sculptor Rino Giannini, and at Harvard College with Dimitri Hadzi. His sculpture
has won numerous awards and grants, including the New York Foundation for the Arts, Gottlieb
Foundation, Sugarman Foundation, National Sculpture Society, and a national sculpture award, juried by
George McNeil in 1986 for the Provincetown Art Association and Museum. His work is in many private
and public collections, including Adams House at Harvard College, Newport News Public Art Foundation,
The Andalusia Museum, Pennsylvania, the Municipal Artistic Archives in Carrara, Italy, the Museum of
Outdoor Sculpture in Fannano, Italy, La Stamperia in Rome, Port Warwick, Virginia, the Church of the
Transfiguration, Orleans, Massachusetts, and Smith College Museum of Fine Arts in Northhampton,
Massachusetts. Del Deo’s work has been featured in exhibits at the Susanne Hojriis Gallery,
Copenhagen, Denmark, the Bridgewater/Lustberg Gallery, New York City, the Bershad Gallery, Boston,
and the Riley Gallery, Grand Rapids, Michigan, among others. He has exhibited continuously with Berta
Walker Gallery since it opened twenty-one years ago.

IMAGES FROM THIS EXHIBITION:

DONALD BEAL:

ROMOLO DEL DEO:

BRENDA HOROWITZ:

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