The Franklin Gallery at RiverStones Custom Framing, 33 N. Main Street in Rochester, will host an exhibit during the month of December entitled ‘Here and There; Far and Near’, featuring the work of Tom Glover and Lawrence Driscoll.
An opening reception will be held on Friday, December 2 from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. The public is invited to come and view the exhibit and meet the artists. Light refreshments will be served.
Although he has a degree in studio art, Driscoll spent most of his career teaching art to middle school students. In recent years, however, Driscoll has started painting again. “I rediscovered my passion for the sky, clouds in particular. The colors, textures, shapes, forms and contrasts fascinate and as it turns out, inspire me. This combined with my long-time love of the English countryside and newfound love of the Sonoran Desert has motivated me to capture and share my love for these two beautiful places.”
Tom Glover is a local artist as well as a framer at RiverStones Custom Framing. Tom took this group of paintings out of the “great exodus of paintings going from my old studio to my new home studio. In that transition, I had to sift through about four hundred paintings.” Although unsure of the cohesiveness of this grouping, Glover is hoping that one or two might appear to the viewers. “I am also very happy to be exhibiting beside my long-time friend and fellow artist Lawrence Driscoll,” says Tom. “I believe this is his first showing of a group of his work in a gallery and it is a strong selection of work as you will see.”
Lawrence Driscoll has a BA in Studio Art from SIU, Edwardsville, and completed his art teacher education/certification at Franklin Pierce College. He taught middle school art at Somersworth and Casa Grande, Arizona, and is currently teaching art at Rochester Middle School. His interests include music, art, history, science, current issues, the environment, cooking, brewing, bird watching, and cycling. He currently resides in Barrington.
Tom Glover studied with John Laurent for over two decades. He met John at the University of New Hampshire where John had taught for 30 years. Glover also studied with John Hatch, Sigmund Abeles, and Conley Harris, among others. It was the connection with Laurent and his ties to early modern American painting through Marin, Hartley, and Walt Kuhn that intrigued Glover. “I feel that art builds upon itself as each group of painters passes on ideas, techniques, manifestos–an ethos of aesthetic concerns,” says Glover. “Through the years an artist begins to absorb and modulate that knowledge and insight.”
Glover’s work often involves thematic concerns and investigation. He has done artist retreats on White Island of the Isle of Shoals; Great Spruce Head Island, where he was able to use Fairfield Porters easel to paint on the island; and Block Island where he continues to visit and work.
He has traveled to Rome, Florence, Siena, Cinque Terre, Milan, Ascoli Piceno, London, Amsterdam, and many far-flung places in the states. He has been Artist in Residence on Appledore Island. He has taught at the University of New Hampshire and presently teaches at Sanctuary Arts in Eliot, Maine.
Of late, his work has focused on birds, Fenway Park, Deer Isle, Maine, and abstract combinatory paintings which he describes as, “concentrations of the piers, docks, flotsam and jetsam one finds along the coast of Maine and New Hampshire.” He also notes: “Robert Hughes once wrote that Richard Diebenkorn was the most intelligent American response to Matisse, and I find that very much the case. And so I wish to be an ‘intelligent response’ to Laurent and what he gleaned from studying with Kuhn. Of course, I am influenced by Diebenkorn and Matisse as well, both of whom I was turned onto by Laurent.”
RiverStones Custom Framing and the Franklin Gallery are open Wednesday through Friday, 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. and Saturday, 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. For information about this exhibit and other RiverStones events and services, call (603) 812-1488, or send an e-mail to riverstonescustomframing@gmail.com. You may also visit www.tpgloverart.com or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/tomgloverart.