C.H. Booth Library is presenting “The Power of Nature,” an exhibition of vibrant oil paintings and one-of-a kind monoprints by Newtown artist Roberta Shea, this month and next.

“I paint what I see around me,” says Shea. “My vividly-hued, highly-textured landscapes express the seasonal changes in nature outside my window. Making original monoprints has liberated my painting and painting has informed my prints.

“What is most important to me is letting the paint be the protagonist to direct the narrative,” the artist continued. “As the artist Ben Shahn once noted, ‘The medium is the message’. I am grateful to be able to show both my prints and paintings together at the library.”

Through passionate and perceptive observations of nature, Shea has developed her signature style of colorful, highly-textured oil painting inspired by both Abstract Expressionism and Impressionism. With loose, bold, brush strokes and color combinations, she seamlessly moves from the realistic to the abstract.

Through the process of layering and building up color and removing it, lines and forms emerge from her dense compositions, which capture an energetic sense of place.

Shea is a member of The Society of Creative Arts of Newtown, Washington Arts Association, and Ridgefield Guild of Artists. Her art is also on exhibit at The Arts League of New Britain, where her painting has been accepted into the 2022 Connecticut Women Artists (CWA) juried exhibition. Featured on the front of this year’s CWA poster is her first place-awarded painting of the Pootatuck River in Sandy Hook.

There is no reception planned for the Booth Library exhibition, but Shea’s art can be viewed along the downstairs hall corridor and conference room during regular library hours (when the meeting room is not in use): Monday through Thursday, 9:30 am-8 pm; Friday and Saturday, 9:30 am-5 pm; and Sunday, 12-5 pm.

The library is at 25 Main Street in Newtown; telephone 203-426-4533.