Guild Hall's Ladies Who Landscape

I'd heard that the East End had a reputable art scene, but for a while I had difficulty banishing images of paint-by-numbers pastel kitties and disproportionately-masted sailboats. Steven Klein helped, as did Bansky, and now that Guild Hall is showing works from three of the nation's top landscape artists, those kitties are scampering fast. The three ladies are Jane Freilicher, Jane Wilson, and April Gornick -all long time Long Islanders whose love of their home comes out in various ways, Freilicher mixes post and abstract impresionism, with more than a touch of whimsy -there's quite a bit of "look through my window," and paintings of paintings of windows looking out on Water Mill's fields and flowers. April Gornik's work is whimsy-free, and large-scale, full of trees and craggy cliffs, and often shot in mid-air. Jane Wilson's paintings are very textural and saturated, sort of a sharpened take on Matisse, with less lillies and more dirt. Together, the artists present a rich and varied sense of place, and what has made it so inspiring.

Guild Hall's "Inspired by the Light: Landscapes by East End Masters," runs through July 27.

[Image via NYT]