NORWICH – Just in time for the holidays, The Artists Palette of Norwich will be hosting their final gallery opening of the 2012 season.
Owner Jill Kraft recently announced she has invited two additional artists in to extend her gallery season.
“I was going to button up the season in October, but decided the season wouldn’t be complete unless I had a holiday show.”
The Jill Kraft Gallery, housed inside The Artists’ Palette located at 29 South Broad Street in downtown Norwich, will host the work of artists Liz Davidson and Dalton Brannick. The show is free and open to the public and will be held Saturday from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
“This will be a new experience for both artists,” said Kraft. “Neither one has ever shown their work like this before.”
Oil painter Liz Davidson has been painting oil landscapes for the past six years. Starting as a hobby, she sells one or more of her pieces each year and is able to continue creating up to 20 new works year after year.
Davidson, who has lived in Norwich since the early 1980s, remembers watching legendary painter,Bob Ross on television and says she was always impressed and inspired by his talent with a paintbrush. “I always knew I wanted to paint like that,” she said.
Davidson, along with some of Ross’s guidance, is completely self-taught. She explains her paintings, which are, on average, complete in less than a day, are always full of color and most of them contain water.
“I actually like the winter scenes the best though,” she said.
The painter uses a wet on wet technique and says she is constantly trying out new painting styles and taking new approaches with her work.
“Every five years I teach my self something new,” said Davidson.
The painter says she loves to create the beauty of nature and especially scenes that can be found throughout the upstate area. She travels the countryside often and says she is always inspired by what she sees.
Davidson will be showing up to 20 small to medium sized pieces in the show and says she is very excited as she has never had her work featured in a gallery showing before.
Dalton Brannick is a young up and coming photographer residing in Upstate New York. He specializes in outdoor senior, maternity, and engagement photo shoots and says he enjoys the commercial aspect of his work as well as nature, sports, and event photography.
“ I love being active in the fresh air, and that’s what has drawn me to shooting mainly outdoors.” As a photographer, Brannick explains he is drawn to sharing his surroundings with others.
Being an active volunteer firefighter has made Brannick no stranger to having to work quickly, which is why some of his favorite images to capture are of the moments that may be gone in the blink of an eye.
“Looking through the lens of my camera is where I feel at home, pleasing others with what I capture, there is no feeling like it,” said Brannick.
Brannick has been doing photography for the past four years and this is the first show of this caliber featuring several of his pieces. He is a member of the Cooperstown Art Association and has shown and sold with them in the past. He plans on attending the college of Central Florida in the fall of 2013 and will be working toward a degree in Digital Media. He later plans on earning a BFA in creative photography from the University of Florida.