The vibrant watercolors of Connecticut artist Sandra Cointreau on exhibit at The Silo Art Gallery at Hunt Hill Farm in New Milford extends from now till May 1. The artworks focus on movement by bull riders, rodeo cowboys and barrel racers, race cars, dancing Native Americans and even flying crows.
For the past two decades, Cointreau has concentrated on portraying action and motion in painting. After years of painting still-life scenes, portraits and landscapes, she began painting horses as they became a major part of her daily life at home and away. While overseas on engineering assignments for international development agencies, she saddled up in far-off places like Pakistan, the Philippines, Gambia, Morocco, Hungary and Turkey. After capturing horses grazing and standing still in her art, she wanted to show them in motion.
As a first step in this process, Cointreau studied the work of artists who focused on race cars, which brought her to Lime Rock Race Track where she became its resident artist for one year.
“Since cars have no musculature, expressions or the ability to bend their body, other techniques are needed to show action,” said Cointreau. “Techniques of blurring edges, tilting the car on a curve in a way that wouldn”™t be possible unless it were moving, creating dust clouds, combined with the expressions of the drivers, were some of the ways the cars could be made to look like they are moving.”
Celebrating its 50th anniversary, the Silo Gallery is part of Hunt Hill Farm, a National Historic Landmark that was once home to the Tonight Show”™s Music Director and founder of the New York Pops Orchestra Skitch Henderson and his wife, Ruth. Its barns and silos are set within the 180-acre preservation of beautiful rolling hills of northern New Milford and include The Silo Cooking School and the Skitch Henderson Museum. It”™s located at 44 Upland Road, off Route 202 in New Milford.
The gallery will be open and hosted by Cointreau, during the weekends from 1 to 5 p.m.
