THE Moviehouse CENTER STUDIO GALLERY SUMMER 2017 EXHIBITION
HARPER BLANCHET: ABSTRACT PAINTINGS
July 1 – October 4, 2017
Opening Reception: Saturday, July 8, 4:30 – 6:30 p.m.
The Moviehouse Studio Gallery, 48 Main Street, Millerton, NY 12546
MILLERTON, NY—Harper Blanchet is a visual artist, painter, photographer and poet/writer who lives and works out of his studios in Falls Village, Connecticut and Phoenicia, New York. A native son, Harper grew up grew up in Sharon, Connecticut and studied art at Connecticut State College from 1966-1970. His work is all non-commercial fine art, and his photography is all on film – no digital. He began painting abstracts on canvas in 1980 while living in a tiny one-room cabin in rural Vermont.
In 1972 Blanchet moved to Cherry Hill Farm in West Cornwall, Connecticut and started photographing the sunsets from Silver Mountain in Millerton which he did through to the early nineties, including in his work, vistas of the Catskills shot from Winchell Mountain. He spent his summers at friend and fellow artist Elizabeth Kelly’s studio in Woodstock.
In 1993 he moved to a new studio – The Tower House – on prospect Mountain Farm in Salisbury and was introduced to the New York Botanical Gardens where he began to photograph flowers. He continued to work out of a number of studios in the area – in Ancramdale and also Limerock – until the early 2000s when he moved into his Twilight Studios and Swift Gallery on Main Street in Millerton. Two big themes in Blanchet’s work are dance and motion and it was at this time – while photographing the Paul Taylor Dance Company in New York City – that these themes were strongly reinforced.
In 2009 Blanchet moved out of his space on Main Street to his current Phoenicia studio and another in Woodstock, and in 2014 moved from Woodstock into the current space – the Twilight Studios and Blue Star Gallery in Falls Village, Connecticut.
Harper rarely shows his work publicly, preferring to sell quietly to private buyers and collectors, so The Moviehouse is delighted to be able to showcase his extraordinary work this Summer.
Hi rez images available upon request
Painting #302: 30″ x 40″ Acrylic on canvas – 2010
Painting #402: 30″ x 40″ Acrylic on canvas – 2016
Painting #154: 30″ x 40″ Acrylic on canvas – 1998
Artist Statement
Personal Aesthetic: “The branch of philosophy dealing with beauty in nature and art.”
The Artist Aesthete: “One who cultivates a superior appreciation of the beautiful.”
“The evolution of my abstract paintings began when I was born. Some important influences are my lifelong passion and involvement with photography, photographing, and the light. This includes composition, content, form, shape, space/spacing, the edge, line, light and shadow and objects in relationship to each other. Another giant influence on my art are doors and windows – passing from one space to another, either visually or physically, or both. Also, sitting in a chair and watching the light change (Cherry Hill Farm Studio, 2nd Floor – 1972). Also, watching the sky (clouds) and sunsets at Sunset Ridge on Silver Mountain and Winchell Mountain in Millerton, New York (1982-present). Also, living in a one room cabin in Vermont with a one hundred and eighty-degree vista of the crest line of the Green Mountains. Also, photographing the female form (figure studies). Also, house painting. And studying/enjoying the natural world. It’s all about the light. It’s all about the sun.”
Harper Blanchet – 2017
Artist Resume [2000 to date]
SOLO SHOWS
2000-2002 West Main Gallery, Lakeville, CT (3)
2003-2004 Manna Dew Cafe Gallery, Millerton, NY (2)
2005-2007 The Swift Gallery, Millerton, NY (3)
2008-2009 The Blue Star Gallery, Millerton, NY (2)
2010-2013 Arts Upstairs Gallery, Phoenicia, NY (4)
May/June 2017 Deborah Berke Gallery, 220 5th Avenue, New York, NY
