Past Event: Dec 2023 – Jan 2024

My work reflects a colorist’s sensibility and ideas about place and season.  The overall goal is to communicate a sense of enjoyment of living here. This show’s paintings “Around Newburyport” were inspired by regular walks from my home in the South End. I see compositions naturally pop up to show off the charms of daily life all over the area. The buildings and streets have a quirkiness of line and shapes, and I love to look for the blue Merrimack River often visible within street views. Animals and people are always fun to paint.  Maritime subjects are challenging because convincing knowledgeable people is important. Generally, my compositions include a variety of changing light, weather, and seasons. Most work was created in the studio based on a quick cellphone pic in portrait mode, often shot in the middle of the street for a whole look. This immediacy captures a landscape sweep with limited elements and details to work in paint. The reference pic is the jumping off point. It may be cropped to play to an interest, or to suit a selected size for a painting. All other decisions come from the eye, the heart, the color palette, and the brush.  Sometimes, another walk-by helps to understand real spaces, and get past the camera’s trick of compression. I work towards an authentic result by developing details of line and color with brushwork. I accept my work as representational, vibrant and expressive. I want to achieve a crisp quality with enough looseness so the viewer shares a role for taking it all in. I am grateful to Middle Street Foods, wonderful provisioners and hosts for this opportunity to show work on their gallery wall. I love being local.

I am grateful to Middle Street Foods, wonderful provisioners and hosts for this opportunity to show work on their gallery wall. I love being local. For further information, please contact me at cynthkowal@gmail.com.

PAINTINGS

Cat Contemplates Chimney                                                Kid with Fish (Released)                                       

Independent Street, August Morning                            Newburyport Boats, Day’s End

Lime Street Intersection                                                     Sheep, Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm

Out Water Street, C Tree                                                    Tennis, Atkinson Common                    

Red House, Rolfe’s Lane                                                      Salisbury Dune

Lower Marlboro Street, Autumn                                      River View, Morning

Past Event: 2018

Cynthia Kowal is a Newburyport-based painter whose work reflects a colorist’s sensibility and ideas about place and season. This show presents a series of local street scenes in acrylic paint on paper that were each created in one or two sessions, conveying expression and focus.  The artist enjoys working with direct action, drawing with a brush, and demonstrating progression within a series. The painting “Yellow House, Water Street” was selected as a mural image for the Clipper City Rail Trail near Joppa Park.

The series developed from a combination of Kowal’s regular walks in the South End and her interest to gain experience in addressing perspective lines from architectural forms. The natural beauty and charm found in Newburyport found their way in to these paintings and were enhanced by Kowal’s desire to show time and season.  In particular, she loves to see blue water beckon at the end of a street, or catch the light of day illuminate a line of houses, or appreciate a wealth of everyday details so close by.

Kowal uses her cell-phone to capture compositional references for development in the studio.  She is not fussy about the photo because her experience of the area informs the attributes of the piece. An elongated-rectangle format suits Kowal’s vision for a broad sweep of a neighborhood scene. Once the painting starts, brushwork and color-mixing quickly take over to produce the thrill of creative action and the finished work has moved beyond the reference. Working on paper rather than canvas encourages Kowal to try many scenes and let a series demonstrate her development.

Cynthia Kowal is a research administrator by profession, and has managed to pursue her interests in art over many years. In 2010, she returned to her early love of painting by joining the Alan Bull Studio as a student, and dedicated herself to painting regularly in oils and acrylics.  Her output reflects her appreciation of the natural world, workplace experience, and enjoyment of living in Newburyport, and includes portraits, animals, street scenes, landscapes, and maritime subjects. Kowal’s new website is cynthiakowal.com and some of her work is posted in time for this show at Commune Café. Other work will be appearing soon so please check back.