George Marshall Store Gallery’s “Various Shades of Grey”

Contrasts in color and forms

The blaze of autumn colors outside are in stark contrast to the “Various Shades of Grey” exhibition currently on view in York’s George Marshall Store Gallery. The show brings together a wide range of media including painting, prints, drawings, sculpture, jewelry and ceramics by two dozen regional artists. Color and form is also on view in the dock level gallery, which features the work of Boston painter Robert Baart and ceramics by New Hampshire artist Boyan Moskov. The shows continue through November 13^th.

An absence of color does not mean a lack of light, texture, form and imagery. The arrangement of works on the left hand gallery wall exemplifies the variety of media found throughout the show. Cabot Lyford’s black walnut “Raven” is positioned as if about to fly into “Surge” and “The Sea Inside,” by Chicago based artist Michael Olszewski. The artist uses applique, embroidery silk, paper, plastic, linen and leather in these crochet pieces. Next is a 16 panel, slate and white gold leaf piece called “Way Back” by Gary Haven Smith, followed by “When I close my Eyes at Night” by Leon Anderson who installs his wooden constructions several inches off the wall, so that the casted shadows become a part of the piece. Peter Dellert’s “Music Nest #2” is a collage of cut and reassembled wasp nest and vintage sheet music.

There is nothing blacker than graphite and charcoal, a medium that is well used in the bold drawings by George Lloyd and Rick Fox. Amparo Carvajal Hufschmid, combines bees wax with graphite in her suite of six drawings. Curator Mary Harding, looked high and low to round out the variety of approaches within the confines of black, white and grey. Her findings include jewelry by Blair LaBella, ceramics by Don Williams, prints by Chris Beneman, Kate Emlen, Bob Parker, Elizabeth Meyer and Francis Ashforth, walking sticks and drawings by Charles Ramsburg, figurative and objective paintings by Don Lent, Christopher Cook and Grant Drumheller, wall mounted constructions and paintings by Jeff Kellar, collages of sewing patterns by Lesia Sochor and enamels and metals by Peter Bennett and Michele Caron.

Color abounds in the dock level gallery. Robert Baart has titled the selection of his paintings “A green thought in a green shade,” a line from the poem “The Garden”, by Andrew Marvell. This famous seventeenth century English poem expresses the poet’s personal emotions and feelings about nature. Baart’s colorful and impressionistic paintings are also about his personal connection with nature. His paintings hover between realism and abstraction using robust colors and strong gestural marks. Although his work is not specific to any one place, it is a personal expression of the artist’s relationship to the landscape and his concerns for the environment. Baart retired in 2009 after 35 years of teaching painting at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Since then he has been painting full time in his space at the Fenway Studios.

Boyan Moskov’s ceramics complement Baart’s paintings in both color and texture. The artist brings all the elements of fine art to his work: sculpture, drawing and painting. He was born in Ruse, Bulgaria and studied at the Troyan Art School and the Sofia Art Academy. He moved to the United States in 2007 and settled in his wife’s home state of New Hampshire. His pieces often begin on the wheel and then are further altered by hand and carving techniques. The surfaces may be enlivened with colorful glazes or decorated with incised lines and carvings. He is inspired by his medium and is constantly exploring new ideas and forms.

The exhibitions continue through November 13^th. Gallery hours are 10 to 4 Wednesday through Saturday, 1 to 4 on Sunday and by appointment. The gallery is a property and program of the Museums of Old York and is located at 140 Lindsay Road, York. 207-351-1083 www.georgemarhshallstoregallery.com