Bennington Welcome Center, Artist of the Month

                                                         Fancy and the Moles 5"x7"
                                                        Acrylic on watercolor paper

                                              Early evening, Strohmaier Rd, Pownal VT 

                                                        Acrylic on panel, 8”x10”  2014

The Bennington Welcome Center is currently featuring “Taking Place,” a solo exhibition of work by Aimee LaPorte. October 29th - December 3rd 2014.
Please join us for refreshments on Friday, November 21 from 5:30 - 7:30pm for the exhibition reception and to meet the artist.

Aimee LaPorte is presenting a collection of landscape paintings and portraits. The Landscapes are inspired by the natural beauty of the Bennington area. Most of these paintings feature mountain vistas and cultivated land amidst epic and dramatic cloudscapes.  

The portraits are part of an ongoing series of paintings of companion animals. This series borrows its name from the Latin word “Gratus,” meaning beloved, dear, pleasing or agreeable. When she began the series in 2011, the style of her miniatures was inspired directly by a grouping of colonial familial portraits from the collection of the Bennington Museum. As time has gone on, these portraits have evolved in style and are quite customized to each subject depicted, from Victorian royalty to prominent or obscure historical figures. 

Dante

Dante,
 the handsome Chesapeake Bay Retriever, After Hans Memling's portrait of  Benedetto Portinari

8" x 10"

2014 Aimee LaPorte
Commissioned piece in a private collection

new frames

I've been experimenting with new frames...

These are smaller than my typical portraits about 4" tall 

Top "Bully", Acrylic on paper

 Middle "Ice." Acrylic on paper

Bottom "Porkchop" Acrylic on paper

Bennington Welcome Center

Early Evening, Pownal Vermont

Acrylic on Panel

2014

 If you are in the area or passing through, please stop by the Visitors Center in Bennington, Vermont.

The current show is an exhibition of my recent work. On view until Dec 3rd, 2014.

The Welcome Center is located at the Junction of Route 7 and Route 279. 

Clawd

                                                      Clawd recent commission 5"x7"
                                                        acrylic on watercolor paper

Wall Works: Art @ the Library

LANDSCHAP: 

Aimee LaPorte & Rhonda Ratray

         

 Bennington Mountains, July Meadow. Aimee LaPorte 2012

 The Land Bridge, Rhonda Ratray 2012

Nina. Aimee LaPorte 2012

October 6 – January 31, 2013

Opening reception: Saturday, October 6, 2012
1:00 – 3:00 p.m.

Bennington Free Library
101 Silver Street
Bennington, VT 05201
(802) 442-9051
http://benningtonfreelibrary.org

Aimee LaPorte
Landscape painting traces its name from the Dutch word “landschap” meaning a patch of cultivated ground. My landscape paintings reflect this history, highlighting the margins of nature and culture. These are depictions of the wild and the cultivated. The apple orchard of my youth and the farms I visit weekly have in part, become the subjects of my paintings. It is not my intention to idealize nature or depict idealized pastoral scenes. These paintings are about stopping and appreciating exactly where I am, the smell, the light, the air.  If I can breathe the air, I can visit and revisit these meditative spaces.

Ongoing Gratus Portrait Series. This portrait series borrows it’s name from the Latin word Gratus, meaning beloved, dear, pleasing or agreeable. The style of these miniatures is inspired by a series of colonial family portraits from the collection of the Bennington Museum.  My subjects are companion animals, some of which are my own family pets.  Intended to delight, these mementos humorously honor dear family members. I work from photographs and digital images. Please contact me if you would like a custom portrait. laporteorama@gmail.com

Rhonda Ratray
The Bridges, is an ongoing series begun in March 2011.  Bridges can be epic like the 1,000 mile long Bering Land Bridge that created a link between North America and Asia ushering humans to a new continent.  Bridges can be fantastic like the Flaming Rainbow Bridge of Norse mythology that connects the Earth to the realm of the gods. Bridges can be iconic like Vermont’s covered bridges that speak to history. These bridges serve to join two pieces of land and foster a connection through time. My series began with bridges in knots as a way to hold the connection tighter. The bridges have evolved from there.  

Now Showing

Recent work on view now till August 31st at Kevin's  @ 27 Main Street, North Bennington.

         

One, Cutoff Rd. Acrylic on Panel 18"x24"" 

“When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.”
― Wendell Berry “The Peace of Wild Things" from The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry. Copyright © 1998.

Landscape painting traces its name from the Dutch word “landschap” meaning a patch of cultivated ground. My landscape paintings reflect this history, highlighting the margins of nature and culture. These are depictions of the wild and the cultivated. The apple orchard of my youth and the farms I visit weekly have in part, become the subjects of my paintings. It is not my intention to idealize nature or depict idealized pastoral scenes. These paintings are about stopping and appreciating exactly where I am. The smell, the light and the air.  If I can breathe the air, I can visit and revisit these meditative spaces.



Little Pea 5"x7" Acrylic on paper. Gratus series 2012

My current portrait series borrows it’s name from the Latin word Gratus, meaning beloved, dear and pleasing. The format and style of these miniatures initially was inspired by a series of colonial family portraits from the collection of the Bennington Museum.  My subjects are mostly companion animals, some of which are my own family pets. Intended to delight, these mementos humorously honor dear family members. I work from photographs and digital images. I am available to paint a portrait of your choosing.