The Blue Mountain Gallery in Chelsea is currently presenting a collection of work by Nancy Beal for the exhibition Landscape/Still Life/Tuscany. For this show, Beal offers landscape and still-life paintings that are rich in color and light and evoke a sense of tranquility with their simple, natural beauty.
Flowers are a popular subject, especially in her still-life paintings. One notable piece titled Red Hollyhocks, petunias Portugal features a ceramic vase holding an assortment of flowers with the bright red color of the hollyhocks contrasting with the other rose and lavender colored petunias and the white daisies. The scene takes place outdoors on a bright, sunny day with the vase resting on an outdoor table where fields of grass and the clear blue sky clearly visible in the distance.
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| Pink Flowers, Green Vase (2014) by Nancy Beal |
Similarly, Spanish Pot, Tomatoes is also set outdoors and features an assortment of yellow, orange, and blue flowers in a ceramic pot and on a table with a floral tablecloth with four red tomatoes next to it. Another notable floral still-life piece titled Pink Flowers, Green Vase is a close-up image of a green vase with assorted pink, red, lavender, and white flowers on a table with a white floral tablecloth inside a home.
Beal offers several landscape paintings many of which she completed during a residency program in Tuscany at Macina di San Cresci. One notable painting titled Mimma’s Window depicts the vista from outside the window of where she was staying. In this piece, she uses several different shades of green for the grass, bushes, and leaves on trees. In a similar image titled Basil and Tomato, Chianti Window, the wooden window panes are visible with a flower pot containing basil, and a bowl of small tomatoes on the ledge, overlooking the clear blue sky, hills, trees, and villas out in the distance.
At The Blue Mountain Gallery, 530 W. 25th St., through Nov. 28. The gallery is open Tue-Sat. from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m.
