Resurrecting a ruin through art - Westfair Communications

The Armory on Bannerman”™s Island as seen in a photograph and mixed-media work by Mary Ann Glass. “Crow”™s Nest, Sunset” and “Winter Ice” ”“ two oil paintings by Virginia Donovan. Images courtesy Bannerman Island Art Gallery.

Through Feb. 5, the Bannerman Island Art Gallery in Beacon is featuring a Hudson Valley exhibit of works by two artists ”“ painter Virginia Donovan and photographer Mary Ann Glass ”“ including works of Bannerman”™s Island and Castle, an abandoned, early-20th century military surplus warehouse that sits on the uninhabited 6.5-acre island (formally Pollepel Island) in the Hudson River amid the Hudson Highlands of Dutchess County.

Born and raised in the Hudson Valley, Donovan is a supporter of the Banner Castle Trust Inc., a nonprofit seeking to preserve the island and castle. They”™re among the muses that appear in her shimmering works of various media and all seasons. Donovan is no stranger to Beacon, having co-owned RiverWinds Gallery there, which closed during the pandemic. She now concentrates on painting and participating in art shows, benefits and plein-air events.

Another co-owner of RiverWinds, Glass had a corporate career in New York City until 1999 when she settled in the Hudson Valley as a professional photographer. But her haunting works, which can evoke everything from noir photography to Hudson River School painting, embrace a range of media, from acrylics to watercolors, digital and infrared photographs, manipulated Polaroids, solarized etching plates, encaustics, cyanotypes and other mixed media. The Ohio native”™s new focus is on iPhoneography, which she has been teaching to students for several years. She now exhibits her work in galleries in New York City and throughout New York state.”¯”¯”¯

Hours of the gallery, 150 Main St., are noon to 5 p.m. weekends and weekday afternoons and evenings by chance and appointment. For more, call 845-416-8342.