NEWFANE-Crowell Art Gallery at Moore Free Library, 23 West St., is now featuring artwork by Saxtons River artist Ricky McEachern from Feb. 4 to March 28.
The show, "Everything Is Now," is an exhibit of McEachern's representational oil paintings.
"The title of the show - I think that just sort of represents a personal journey or awareness that I have become about life, but I feel like most of my paintings always have a sense of the moment in them," McEachern said.
It is a combination of structures, landscapes in nature, and some figurative pieces.
"There's a part of painting where you don't really know what's going to come out, and it's very much affected by what's going on in your life," he said. "I'm very excited for people to see them, because they do look very different."
Blending the past and present
McEachern has been painting since 2011, and this is his fourth solo show since moving to Vermont from Chicago in 2022.
He spent most of his life in Boston working a traditional corporate career, but due to the ski house he was a part of, he visited Vermont regularly which became year round.
"I had a very strong affinity for the area, and I knew that once I was ready to move out of an urban environment, I would want to be in this area," McEachern explained.
McEachern was always an artsy kid but dropped it out of being bullied, and decided to focus on his love for science. He has a degree in engineering.
But "my brain is definitely wired hardcore as a creative person, so the creative would always reveal itself in ways when I was in a job that was completely uncreative," he said. "And then at some point I realized, 'You need to get back to this thing, if you can.'"
He then decided painting was going to be the way to get back into art.
The real in the realism
McEachern gives advice to someone looking to start this style of artwork to talk to a professional: "about composition, the color wheel, color theory - you need to learn all of that stuff"
"I'm inspired to connect with people. I think that's what it's all about. And painting is a way for me to put a part of me out in the world - a very small part, a but it's a unique part that people wouldn't normally see., McEachern said.
McEachern has another show coming up at Next Stage Arts in May.
The paintings will be available for purchase.
An opening reception will be held Saturday, Feb. 8 from 4 to 6 p.m. Hours for the Moore Free Library and Crowell Gallery: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 1 to 5 p.m.; Thursdays, 1 to 6 p.m., and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. For more about Ricky McEachern, visit rickyartist.com.
This Arts item by Alyssa Grosso was written for The Commons.