Nan Hass Feldman The Garden and Beyond: New Painting

APRIL 10 – MAY 4, 2014

Reception April 12, 5 – 7PM 

Artist Talk and Poetry Reading with Alan Feldman

May 3, 5 – 7PM 

Nan Hass Feldman’s paintings, whether oil, acrylic, or mixed media, are stylized, yet recognizable, and vibrantly colorful. Often intricate, playful, enlivening and upbeat, her work focuses on the subjects of interiors and landscapes.

Nan Hass Feldman, The Chapel on the Cliff

Inspiration for these new paintings comes from the artist’s recent experiences on the Greek island of Skopelos and in the jungle area of Boca de Tomatlan, Mexico. 

Nan Hass Feldman’s paintings evoke a child-like joy, and yet a more sophisticated appreciation of the possibilities of seeing a subject endlessly – through vibrant color, pattern, texture, and imagination.

Framingham artist Nan Has Feldman has had countless solo exhibitions throughout her distinguished career.  Her work is in numerous corporate and university collections, as well as in the collections of the Danforth Museum and in private collections in France, England, Italy, Spain, Japan, and Sweden. She teaches at Danforth Art and the Worcester Art Museum, as well as in Europe and Mexico, and paints in her studio at Fenway Studios in Boston.

In conjunction with the exhibit, a Poetry Reading with Alan Feldman, along with a talk by the artist, will be held May 3, from 5 – 7 PM. Alan Feldman, an award-winning poet, will read from his newly published chapbook Flowers in Wartime, a collection of 28 short poems written during the opening months of the Iraq war. A signed limited edition of Flowers in Wartime , illustrated with six paintings by Nan Hass Feldman, will be available for purchase,  with all proceeds to benefit the scholarship fund at Danforth/Art.  

Dubuffet and Nan Hass Feldman

"The Cow with the Subtle Nose", 1954, by Dubuffet.

In a series of occasional blog posts, we've asked a member artist to talk briefly about an artist who's profoundly influenced their work. Artist Nan Hass Feldman tells us about two artists who've profoundly influenced her.

I was introduced to art at a very young age.  My mother signed up for mother and daughter art classes weekly at the Brooklyn Museum when I was ages 3 though 10 years old.  When I turned 12 years old, my closest friend from middle school and I would meet at the subway station at Kings Highway in Brooklyn and travel to Manhattan where we would get off at 8th St. in Greenwich Village and walk up 5th Avenue to 53rd St. where we would visit the Museum of Modern Art.  Then we would walk over to Madison Avenue and visit the Whitney Museum, and on upwards to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We did this almost every Saturday until we were 18 years old and off to college. During these years, I had a few favorite paintings I would visit each week.

 "The Goldfish", by Matisse

Ultimately, Dubuffet's and his painting "The Cow with a Subtle Nose" was my alter-ego and had the qualities I admired that I wanted more to have in my own work.  At the time I was writing my thesis, and my own work involved large mixed-media paintings which  were realistic (though made-up) of architecture, people inside and out, and lots of fantasy.  The works were representaional, though fictional, and took me months to create.  After writing this thesis about the cow, my work totally changed and indeed, the paper did end up being about me after all. 

The second artist I fell head-over-heels about was Matisse.  Of course, he is immensely loved world-wide, but I fell for him also as a very young child.  One painting I remember along with others of his is, "The Goldfish". Matisse's colors, shapes, and subjects are all about color and design without the baggage of correct perspective or true colors and I have been influenced whether consciously or otherwise by him all my life. 

Nan Hass Feldman, The Yellow Tablecloth

 I've attached my painting of "The Yellow Tablecloth" of my dining room which everyone mentions it reminds them of Matisse.  I am sure I did not think of Matisse while I painted this, but I too paint as I see, am focused on my subject as a vehicle for a love of subjective color, patterns, details, and a communication of a more interesting world.

Nan Hass Feldman

508.380.6222

NanHassFeldman.com