BRATTLEBORO — Mitchell-Giddings Fine Arts presents Light and Air, an exhibition of new oil paintings by artist and gallery co-founder Petria Mitchell.
The artist's reception and opening is Saturday, Aug. 3, from 5 to 7 p.m., and the show continues through Sept. 22. An Artist Talk is scheduled for Sunday, Aug. 25, at 5 p.m.
Educated at an early age at The National Academy School of Fine Arts in New York, and The Vesper George School of Art in Boston, Mitchell has been involved with art making for more than 50 years as a printmaker, engraver, and painter.
Mitchell says her paintings start with small thumbnail sketches, quick emotional notations that become the foundation of her imagined landscapes. She uses nature as an initial reference point in her work.
“This allows me to play with limitless visual possibilities with a thorough appreciation for abstraction,” she said in a news release. “My paintings are compositions of internal places not visited on foot. When working with atmosphere and diffused light, I'm able to emphasize my interest in the plasticity of paint, rather than the physics of light.”
The late Ric Campman said in 2001 that “Petria's brushwork is wonderfully integrated into the light and darkness of her work. Her brushwork has an abstract quality to it that testifies to the authenticity of her work.”
Mitchell serves or has served on numerous not-for-profit boards, panels, and committees. She co-founded Mitchell-Giddings Fine Arts, which will be celebrating its fifth anniversary by expanding and moving to its new upstairs space in the fall.