(LITTLE SILVER, NJ) -- Gallery Jupiter presents "Conspiracy of Color" from April 25 through June 10, 2024. Two painters, two styles, one exhibition. They both teach color theory. One paints geometric abstractions. One paints atmospheric landscapes. They are Meryl Blinder and Christie Scheele.
Their self-imposed challenge was to create paintings using identical color schemes. Keeping the color schemes identical allows the artists to employ all their knowledge about color theory: the saturation or intensity, the perception of depth, and the value.
Any conspiracy requires strategic planning. Here’s what Ms. Blinder and Ms.Scheele came up with: #1: Create paintings using specific monochromatic color schemes.
#2: Within the monochromatic color schemes create paintings using ranges of colors from warm to cool and dark to light.
#3: Create paintings using complementary colors. Complementary colors are opposite on the color wheel and deliver the most “pop” to a painting.
By having color be a constant, viewers can enjoy all the other aspects of painting. Eyeballs will constantly be going back and forth. They will be comparing, contrasting, being satisfied, or being unsettled. It’s part of the process of learning about color. It’s part of the process of learning about art. The community completes the conspiracy.
There will be an Opening Reception on Thursday, April 25th from 5:00pm to 8:00pm.
Red Monochrome by Meryl Blinder
Meryl Blinder completed her MFA in 1999 from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University after doing her undergraduate work at the Tyler School of Art and Architecture in Philadelphia. She was born in New York City and first moved to Princeton, NJ in the 1970s when her husband was an undergraduate at Princeton University. Since 1999, she has been an Adjunct Professor at the School of Architecture and Design at Wentworth Institute in Boston where she teaches color theory, drawing, 2D & 3D design.
In New Jersey, she worked for the Michael Graves Architects from 1989 - 1997 designing colors for projects such as the Disney Dolphin and Swan Hotels, and the Denver Public Library. Her color approach is still very much influenced by her work with Mr. Graves. Before living in Princeton, Ms. Blinder lived in New Haven, CT where she worked as a courtroom sketch artist for television news. In 2001 and 2002, she was invited to create installations for World Aids Day at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. She is currently an adjunct professor at the Wentworth Institute of Technology where she teaches Color, Design, and Drawing.
“The single most important thing I do is to create the mystery of depth with overlapping colors. Just as in landscape painting, I am fascinated by the impression of space created by patterns, contours, and color contrasts. These inform both my painted designs and my dimensional drawings.”
Ms. Blinder has shown her work extensively including exhibits at the Cape Cod Museum of Art, the Danforth Museum, the Library of Congress, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and the Brooklyn Waterfront Coalition and at Gallery Jupiter in Little Silver NJ.
Reds Warm Into Cool by Christie Scheele
Christie Scheele has been painting devotedly since receiving her BFA from the College of Art and Design at Alfred University, which included a year-long fellowship at the Royal Academy in Madrid. She started painting her atmospheric, minimalist landscapes just before moving to the Catskills from New York City. These meditative pieces cross the boundaries between realism and the contemporary art world, reaching the viewer’s heart without sentimentality or melodrama. She has led color theory workshops at the Woodstock School of Art, at the Provincetown Artists Association and Museum, and for the Artists Association of Nantucket.
Scheele’s work is included in private and public collections nationwide and internationally including the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art (New Paltz, NY), the Queens Museum of Art, the Provincetown Artists Association and Museum, the Tyler Museum of Art (Tyler, TX), St. Joseph’s University (Philadelphia, PA), American Airlines, Waterford Crystal, Bessemer Trust Company, the Emerson Resort and Spa, and the Mayo Clinic. Her work was featured in the films “Broken Flowers” and “Perfect Strangers”, and has been profiled and reviewed extensively in such publications as Architectural Digest, Hook Magazine, the Woodstock Times, Art New England, and Cape Cod Art. She has had dozens of solo shows over the years, including in 2023 when 1053 Gallery presented Alas/Watershed, the artist's third show to feature a climate change theme.
“The single most important aspect of what I do as a landscape painter is to reduce a scene to its essentials. This gives the viewer what is important, without the distraction, or visual clutter, of too much detail. Both by creating this overview and by using soft, scumbled edges, these paintings can quiet a viewer's mind and evoke a more direct response.”
Gallery Jupiter is located at 31 Church Street in Little Silver, New Jersey. Shop owner Judith Trammell began her career as a photo stylist in New York City. She is a trained Feng Shui practitioner who brings her knowledge and experience to her private consulting services. Judith's in-home design consultation services include art recommendations, accessorizing areas of the home, and providing professional advice on redesigning, hanging artwork, and placement of art and objects.
