By
Lorna Ritz
Piece description from the artist
Second drawing of the 'autumn drawing season,' (after having painted in the outdoor studio since May). I live by a seasonal rhytmic shift, so will be outside drawing until it gets too cold to hold the oil crayons in my frozen fingers, (late November). Then I will paint where it's warm in my indoor studio, until moving out to the outdoor barn studio in early May. I am always painting seasonal changes in the landscape. Presently, I study the autumn colors shift from day to day, about to burst into oranges and reds, moving away from the duller greens that get tired of being so emerald green all summer long. I have studied the shape of Mt. Norwottuck for decades and never get it right the first 100 times of drawing it. I always have to find it's shape again, in each drawing, (and, the sky, "what it's doing today," the mountain and the sky both coming through the apple tree). The foreground hay pulls the viewer forwards the bottom of the drawing, proportionately pushing the sky back.
Lorna Ritz studied under the instruction of painter James Gahagan, (a student of Hans Hofmann), who was a very important teacher for her in the 60’s. She received an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1971, in both painting and sculpture, (welding steel, and casting in bronze and iron). She welded steel for 25 years, but never stopped painting, and only paints now. It is color and paint that structures the space that then finds the volumetric composition of her painting. BFA Pratt Institute MFA Cranbrook Academy Art.Taught @: R.I.School Design, Brown U,U MN, Dartmouth College VT Center,NY Studio School, UMASS, Residencies:C-Scape Dune Shacks,'P’Town, MA., International Program, UMASS, Cape Town,South Africa, Wurlitzer Foundation, NM.,Arcadia National Park, ME, Fundacíon Valparaíso,Spain; Roswell Museum Art Center, NM.,MacDowell Colony, NH, Lectures: Instituto de Belles Artes, (Medellin, Colombia), Honduras; American U, (D.C. + Italy);Humboldt U.,(CA);American U, (France) Divinity Center Yale U, Bowery Gallery,NYC, Hillyer Gallery, and Oresman Gallery at Brown Fine Arts Center @ Smith College,'Contemporary Art Museum" UMASS. ,Hood Museum, Dartmouth College, Fine Arts Center P’Town, MA. Group exhibitions:"Anita Shapolsky Gallery, NYC, The Painting Center," NYC Edward Hopper Museum, NY, Hannah Bacol Busch Gallery,Texas, Lamont Gallery, Phillips Exeter Academy, NH. solo shows: Contemporary Art Museum UMASS,,State House,Boston, Aidron Duckworth Art Museum, NH.,French Cultural Center, Boston, Grants: Artists' Fellowship, Berkshire Taconic Foundation, Haven Foundation,ME, George Sugarman Grant, Puffin Foundation, NJ, Kittredge Grant, Harvard U., Pollock-Krasner Grants, Esther & Adolph Gottlieb Individual Grant, Ludwig Vogelstein, Blanche Colman Grant Public Collections: U Michigan Museum Contemporary Art, Hale and Dorr Law Firm, Bank of Boston, Johnson &Johnson, (N.J.), Anderson Museum Contemporary Art, (N.M.), Burnham Institute, (CA.), Veridex, (NJ),Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Childrens' Hospital, Nataxix Global Asset, Cedars Sinai Hospital LA,Audax Group, United Health Group Corporate Minnesota, McLean Hospital @ Harvard Medical School, Ipsen Cambridge, MA.
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