SAXTONS RIVER — Artist Brian Cohen makes a return to Saxtons River for a show of his work at Main Street Arts now through Feb. 23.
There will be a reception for the artist on Thursday, Jan. 18, from 5:30 to 7 p.m.
A one-time resident of the village, the educator, artist, and writer now lives in Westmoreland, N.H.
An illustrator, etcher, printmaker, and water colorist, Cohen founded Bridge Press, publisher of limited-edition artist's books and etchings, in 1989.
He has shown in more than 40 individual exhibitions, including a retrospective at the Fresno Art Museum, and has participated in more than 150 group shows.
His books and etchings are held by major private and public collections throughout the country, including Yale, Harvard, Brown, and Stanford Universities, Middlebury, Smith, Wellesley, Swarthmore, and Dartmouth Colleges, the University of Vermont, The New York Public Library, The Library of Congress, and the Philadelphia and Portland (Ore.) Museums of Art, as well as the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and the U.S. Ambassador's residence in Egypt.
He was the winner of major international print competitions in San Diego, Philadelphia, New York, Washington, DC., and Mexico City, and was awarded the Best Book in Show at the Pyramid Atlantic Book Fair.
He is the illustrator of two popular natural science books, Reading the Forested Landscape and The Granite Landscape, and is a frequent contributor of artwork to literary reviews and other publications, including the Paris Review. A book of his work, Brian D. Cohen: Etchings & Books, was published in 2001.
His writing on prints, books, and arts education has appeared in the Huffington Post, Art in Print, Parenthesis, Vermont Views, and other print and online journals and magazines.
Closer to home, Cohen was the founding artistic director of the Two Rivers Printmaking Studio in White River Junction and has taught at The Putney School since 1985 and was founding director of its Summer Programs.
Cohen said he returned to an earlier infatuation with color about five years ago after working in black and white etching for more than 20 years.
“All my watercolor paintings are done on site, in immediate response to where I happen to be, to that particular topography, light, and distance,” Cohen said.
The Connecticut River, the double hump of Bald Mountain in Westminster and the fields, forests, and hills near his home have provided inspiration for his paintings. Others are from a California perch at 6,000 feet looking west from the San Jacinto Mountains with a 100-mile view and from the beach looking out to the Pacific Ocean.