GRAFTON — Longtime resident artist Bradford Voight - who is nationally renown as a classic, regional landscape painter - is showing his latest paintings at the Gallery North Star.
This unique exhibition from the 88-year-old painter, which began with an opening reception on July 10, will run through Aug. 8 at the Townshend Road gallery.
“This group of recent paintings by Bradford Voight show a master painter who, even at an advanced age, retains his senses of composition and color along with control of both the oil and watercolor mediums,” said Edward Bank, owner of Gallery North Star. “The appeal of Voight's work is an accessibility that captures the essence of New England.”
Over the years, Voight has built a unique and loyal following, his oil and watercolor paintings included in over 400 private, public and corporate collections throughout the world.
Voight's paintings have hung in such galleries as the San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts, the Orange County Museum in California, the National Museum and Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C. and the Springfield Museum of Fine Arts in Springfield, Mass.
Born in Connecticut and raised on the West Coast, Voight has resided in Grafton for nearly 40 years. He is former director of the Connecticut Watercolor Society, a member of Silvermine Guild of Artists and the Rockport Art Association, to name only a few of his many art affiliations.
His work inspires the beauty of his surroundings, which clearly holds a special place in his heart.
“I was living in Ludow at the time, this is around 1970,” Voight said on the day after his Gallery North Star opening reception. “Then one day I came to a Grafton church event for a friend's daughter and said 'This place is beautiful. We've got to get a place here.' Then I moved to Grafton around 1972 and have lived here ever since.”
Equally gifted in both the watercolor and oil mediums, Voight's works offer views that capture the true essence of Vermont and the New England landscape through such rural settings as countryside hills, rustic barns and beautiful farm houses. A few of his solo exhibitions over the years have included the White Gallery in Washington, D.C., the Munson Galleries in New Haven, Conn., and Chatham, Mass., and the George Walter Vincent Smith Museum in Chappaqua, N.Y.
“I especially enjoy showing my work here in my own backyard and Gallery North Star has always been very good to me,” Voight said. “These recent works include about 20 paintings that I have created over the last five years or so. I was also very pleased with the amount of people who came out to Grafton for the opening reception.”
Along with North Star Gallery, Voight is also currently showing his paintings at Harbour Square Gallery in Maine, the Bryan Memorial Gallery in Jeffersonville and Vermont Fine Arts in Stowe. He creates most of his works from his own North Orchard Studio in, of course, Grafton.