Amy Rice’s artwork presents wildlife at its fullest. Her affection for the outdoors manifests itself in vibrant reds, yellows, purples, blues and greens – from rolling fields of flowers ready to be gathered to isolated flora depicted stem, root, and all. Having studied the anatomy of flowers and invested time into growing her own, Rice’s work is both a study and celebration of her wild subjects.

Groveland Gallery is pleased to announce the upcoming exhibition, Sense of Place.  This exhibition was curated in collaboration with the Minnesota Conservation Volunteer magazine. The show coincides with the November-December 2018 Sense of Place edition of this popular magazine which is published by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.  Both the magazine and the exhibition will feature artwork by eleven Groveland Gallery artists each of whose artwork takes inspiration from the natural world that surrounds us and defines Minnesota.

As the titled implies, for this exhibition Kit Wilson has focused her attention along the shoreline. Near water is where she is most at home and where Wilson has long found the subject matter for her paintings. Water in all forms and during all seasons captures her attention. With a sharp eye and near photo realist paint handling, she examines various bodies of water and shorelines – a languid velvety lake on a summer night, crusty ice along the edge of a river, or a hypnotic assortment of smooth rocks and pebbles recently washed by a wave.

For over 20 years, the North Shore of Lake Superior has been a favorite and frequently visited location for Holly Swift. Abstract and loosely painted on a framework of geometry, Swift’s work knits together scenes of the rugged North Shore landscape. The paintings in this exhibit reveal the many variations of weather and mood which make the North Shore so compelling.

Included in this exhibition will be over a dozen landscapes on paper. Each image has been composed within a square format and Dan Bruggeman has chosen to place the horizon in the center of the composition, lending equal importance to sky and land. According to Bruggeman, each vignette that inhabits these paintings, “resides in a larger, more panoramic vista; one that is defined by an even more dramatic expanse of sky and land that meet at the edge of our vision.”

In earlier work, Dan O’Kane’s painterly abstractions were shaped by the big-sky and rolling plains of his childhood Nebraska home. In this new series, O’Kane’s composition choices were inspired by three separate trips to the Mediterranean, two to Spain and one to France.

The Groveland Gallery Plein Air SmackDown returns for its 8th year. This year, 20 gallery and guest artists will be painting en plein air on and around the Upper St. Anthony Falls Lock & Dam. This year’s event is being held in partnership with the National Park Service and Mississippi Park Connection, the Friends Group of the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area (MNRRA).

Since Ancient time, and throughout art history, including the Renaissance, Romanticism, Impressionism, and into Contemporary times, artists have been compelled to paint and interpret the landscapes that surround them. In Minnesota, sky, land and water are akin to the primary colors when it comes to landscape painting.

Quick and decisive strokes fill Susan Horn’s canvas. She writes, “As I am painting, I am looking for a resonance – a rhythm that physically hits you like a deep chord. This is the sensation I paint towards.” Deviating from her past semi-abstract landscapes, in this exhibition Horn employs color relationships to communicate an attitude or impression. In these paintings, confined neighborhoods of blue, teal and burnt orange rub shoulders and create a dialog.

Meg Ojala has lived in Minnesota most of her life and has taught photography at St. Olaf College for over 30 years. In 2017, she was awarded an Artist Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board to research, explore, and photograph bogs. She intends for the resulting photographs to make the insights of natural science visible and to call attention to the ambiguous nature of these beguiling ecosystems.