The 7TH Annual Points of View, an Art Show and Sale featuring five local artists, will once again be presented at the Saw Mill, part of the Prallsville Mill, located at 33 Risler Street in Stockton, NJ. The show will begin with an Opening Reception on Friday, October 22nd from 7 – 9 pm. The show continues Saturday, October 23rd, and Sunday October 24th, 12-5. For more information, contact JeanneChesterton@gmail.com or Ilene@IleneRubin.com. Parking is free and abundant. Entrance is in the red barn building. Look for the banners and flags. Of course, all Covid precautions will be adhered to, and masks will be provided. Showcasing their work are Ilene Rubin, Jeanne Chesterton, Jim Bongartz, Armor Keller, and Nancy Shill. All art is for sale.
Jeanne Chesterton and Ilene Rubin have been creating Art Shows in the Bucks County area since 2014 and are pleased to be having this year’s show after a pandemic hiatus. Along with a who’s who list of local artists, they have found that joining talent with location to exhibit and sell art has been quite the lucrative endeavor. It’s a win-win for any serious collector of art or a casual tourist wanting to go home with a little piece of Bucks County in the New Hope/Lambertville/Stockton areas. Of course, all Covid precautions will be adhered to, and masks will be provided for anyone who may want one.
A few of the aspects that they like so much about the Point of View Art Show are that the art of Jeanne Chesterton and Ilene Rubin, along with Jim Bongartz, Armor Keller, and Nancy Shill, complement each other while individually, are visually vastly different. All are award winning artists, and all bring a unique voice and interpretation to the visual world around them. At the same time, each in their own way offers an enormous array of paintings, each one professionally created and available for one weekend only.
There is something for everyone with little to no overlap of style or range. Also, each has amassed their own following and niche in an otherwise crowded art field in the Bucks County region. It’s a unique blend with a wide price range, so that anyone who is a collector will certainly have a diverse choice, while a casual tourist will easily find a treasure at the famous Saw Mill at Prallsville Mill.
Ilene Rubin is a self-taught artist who has lived in Elkins Park, Thousand Oaks, California, Boulder, Colorado and now calls Doylestown home. She received the Ty Hodanish award for Oil Painting in the Artsbridge 2021 Member Show in March 2021 and in the 34th Annual Bucks Fever Juried Art Exhibition “Celebrating Bucks County Artists”. She is a published author of two novels. She is a participating artist in the ongoing virtual 2021 Bucks County Chamber of Commerce Bucks Fever Virtual Studio Artist Tour and was the Featured Artist in Bucks County Magazine in June 2021. She is a member of most Bucks County Art organizations and previously served as Vice President of the New Hope Art League. She is currently the Chair of the ongoing Art Show at the Lower Bucks Hospital for The Artists of Bristol on the Delaware.
Says Ms. Rubin, “I’m an artist who feels very strongly about the emotional and instinctive force which drives the creative process. I want to feel that a location or object must be explored. That exploration creates a reality on canvas and makes it real. That sense that I must document it is urgent and required or I will not rest until I have conveyed everything about it. It is organic and ever evolving, but unless my painting can reveal the artist in the art while at the same time be an inner mirror for a viewer, it’s merely a rendering of color and form but not stirring. I strive to reveal what’s below the paint, an invitation to walk in and look around. Then I know I have captured a moment that is unique yet familiar. It may not be exactly what is seen outside your window or on your table in perfect clarity, and it might be a little wonky or really only sensed, but if it made a viewer consider its innate beauty, then I feel I have conveyed something about me that they did not realize until seeing my paintings. My greatest joy is when someone looks at my paintings all together in an arrangement on the wall and envisions a connection in time and place. That’s a wonderful moment and I never tire of it. For me that is the creative process, driven by an instinct of what is compelling vs. merely ordinary. My job is to understand that capturing the ordinary can reveal the compelling.”
Jeanne Chesterton creates still life paintings reminiscent of classic realism. She is especially drawn to common, everyday objects which bear the beauty marks of age and wear. The patinas of tarnished metals and discolored enamelware, worn surfaces and damaged edges are of special interest to her. Staging the tableau is important and may require numerous exchanges of pieces in order to achieve compositional harmony based on color, line, shape and pattern. Bringing the painting to life becomes the goal, thus creating an aesthetic dynamic with lasting appeal. As an award-winning artist, Ms. Chesterton has exhibited in over 250 shows, including the prestigious Phillips’ Mill and the Ellarslie Open.
Jim Bongartz is the Director of Education for the AOY Art Center in Yardley, PA. coordinating adult and youth classes and workshops. He also teaches classes in painting and abstraction. Jim Bongartz was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where he began studies at Carnegie-Mellon University followed by a Bachelor of Science Degree in Art Education at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. After moving to the Philadelphia area in 1989, he began a twenty-two-year career as a full-time art teacher for a private, special education, K-12 school in Fort Washington. While teaching, Jim kept a working studio in pursuit of his painting career. One of Jim’s treasured accomplishments was maintaining weekly painting sessions with painter Steve Kennedy for over 15 years. Jim turned to acrylics; painting images inspired from his photography referencing how the camera interprets light, color, motion, and time. Allowing the camera to capture an exploratory moment in travel, play or daily life, Jim transforms the graphic nature of photography to a painterly world with bold color and brushwork.
Says Jim: “Bringing images to life with light and color is a painting journey I love. Whether abstract or figurative, my aim is to visually engage viewers to develop a meaningful response, connection, and/or relationship with the imagery. Referencing my digital photography is key to both developing compositions and with handling the paint interpretations. Digital photography allows me to study and play with how light can be captured and manipulated. Photography also has unique effects on reproducing color, form, space and even time. Investing time with the camera and manipulating images into digital compositions are as significant as the easel time. Creating a digital file for referencing a painting informs my physical responses to the paint, in both color mixing and with surface application. Direct pouring, direct brushwork and indirect layering are painting methods employed with acrylic mediums and paints.”
Armor Keller was born in Montgomery, Alabama. After having lived in different parts of the United States and overseas, her home is now Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Her artwork has been presented in many solo exhibitions and group exhibitions. She has had several commissions including designing and gold leafing six wooden doors for Temple Beth El of Birmingham, AL, and thirty-three paintings for Broadway Crowne Plaza Hotel of New York. One of Armor’s more ambitious projects has been the Magic City Golden Transit, a car that she gold leafed and jeweled inside and out. It has been featured in a film, books, a calendar, several magazines including Smithsonian Magazine, Car and Driver, Spiegel of Germany, the Japan Esquire, and newspapers, including the New York Times. Her art car is now permanently located at The Art Car World Museum, in Arizona.
In 1993, Armor began making one of a kind artist’s books. Her books have been exhibited, not only in the USA, but Canada, Mexico, and Germany. She received her art degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, after having spent many years studying at the Universities of Guam and Huntingdon College. She has been greatly influenced by Japanese art and has been an official guest of Japan. Armor served on the Birmingham Sister City Commission and on the Board of Directors of the Japan America Society of Alabama. She received an Individual Residential Fellowship, Escape to Create, Seaside, Florida. Armor is an art advocate, lecturer, and teacher. Other art related activities, past or present, include President, Watercolor Society of Alabama; President, Birmingham Art Association; President, Montgomery Art Guild; President, Space One Eleven Art Center, Birmingham, AL; member of Board of Directors, Bluff Park Art Association; member of National League of American Pen Women; member of American Association of University Women; listed in Who’s Who in America, of the South and Southwest, and American Women. Her works are in numerous public and private collections.
Nancy Shill is a New Hope abstract artist who creates in oils and collage. She may layer back and forth between the two media. It is about constant discovery and interrelationships. Being exposed to MoMA at an early age she has drawn to the modern works of Kandinsky, Matisse, Schwitters, Picasso, Kline and DeKooning. Searching for her own voice she was fortunate to have been able to study with Roy Lichtenstein at Douglass College of Rutgers University in 1961. He inspired her in the discovery of her unique approach. Her work is in permanent collections at Capital Health Medical Center, Hopewell NJ and, the Municipal Building at Princeton where she was Artist in Residence. Shill has won Prizes at the Phillips Mill Juried Show, Ellarslie Museum Juried Show, Artsbridge, Tinicum Arts Festival, Abington Art Center, and the Philadelphia Sketch Club. Most recently she has taught at the Artists of Yardley (AOY), Contemporary Arts at Bedminster (NJ) and the Arts Council of Princeton. “As a teacher, I encourage my students to find their special way of expressing themselves. They never fail to surprise me with their unique approaches. I encourage them to make their own decisions. It’s about loosening up and trusting yourself.”
