Date: Fri 13-Aug-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Quick Words:

Corrigan-horse-muse-paintings

Full Text:

A Trumbull Artist Finds Her Muse In Newtown

(with cut)

FAIRFIELD -- An exhibition of paintings by the Trumbull artist Judith

Corrigan, called "Expressions," has opened at Gallery Eleven in Fairfield and

will remain on view through September 21.

What might be fun for local horse enthusiasts to learn is that much of the

artist's inspiration for her works have come from observing and drawing three

beautiful horses stabled at the home of Jennifer and John Verrilli, the

artist's oldest daughter and son-in-law, who live in Newtown.

Judith spends much of her time divided between working in her studio in

Shelton and weekends in Newtown, at the home of her daughter and son-in-law.

"She has three horses on her property, and it's just great. You look out the

kitchen window and you see this beautiful scene of horses romping around," Ms

Corrigan said this week. "There's also a horse farm right next door to her, so

there's a lot to work from up there."

Jennifer and John Verrilli purchased their home just over two years ago, said

Ms Corrigan, but the artist's two daughters have been keeping their horses

boarded in Newtown for nearly five years now.

"Jennifer and John also have a place in Manhattan, because that's where they

work, but they spend every weekend up there," Ms Corrigan continued. "It's

their weekend house, but it's also a great family gathering place. We all love

to go there on the weekends. Plus Newtown is such a nice town, and with all

the restaurants... we really enjoy it."

The artist's paintings -- strong, original images in layers of Mediterranean

blues, greens and ochres -- have been described by the artist and critic

Victor Caglioti as "a record of our felt experiences... vibrant, energetic and

direct."

"Human and animal figures, which I build intuitively out of the paint, are

dominant images in my paintings," said Ms Corrigan. "The mythical connection

between animals and human-kind fascinates me."

Ms Corrigan grew up in a small town within the Catskills Mountain region in

New York, on the banks of the Hudson River. "At an early age I strongly

connected to the contours of the land and the rhythms of nature," said the

artist. Ms Corrigan spent her summers at her grandmother's farm in

southwestern Massachusetts, where, she says, "The farm animals, horses

especially, captured my young imagination, embedding in my psyche images of

majestic size and graceful beauty."

These early images, coupled with a love of music and dance, nurtured by her

father, developed subconsciously over the years, giving rise to "colorful,

mysterious paintings of human figures and animals intertwined in the dance of

life," she said.

"I use the horse and human figure to express the vitality and spontaneity of

my imagination," Ms Corrigan says. "They are my big beautiful dancers and

actors on canvas."

"Expressions" opened the evening of August 7 at Gallery Eleven. The gallery is

situated in the center of Fairfield, next to the town's old community theatre.

"It's an excellent location, because people are going into the theatre and

it's a nice culture point," Ms Corrigan said. "We had a lot of people -- I'm

sure we had over 100 people there, and it's a pretty small gallery space.

Everyone seemed very excited about it."

The current show offers viewers a mix of work Ms Corrigan has done over the

past few years. There are pieces she painted while visiting France a few years

ago, and small works that are brand new, created specifically for the new

show.

"This is the kind of work I want to show at my gallery," said Gallery Eleven

director Ulla Surland. "There is an intuitive and emotional content in her

work that is free, and open and wonderful. She captures the essence, the

spirit of the horse."

Ms Corrigan is a founding member of the Canal Street Artists Collective in

Shelton, where she maintains her studio. The collective is set up within a

100-year old factory building in Shelton along the Housatonic River. "The

building's owner, Don Watts, rents out space within the complex -- usually to

corporate people, lawyers, whatever, but he is also a man who strongly

supports the arts," explained Ms Corrigan, who took Mr Watts up on his offer

to relocate from her Bridgeport studio to his setting in Shelton. Currently

there are three artists working in the cooperative, but Ms Corrigan hopes to

bring a large number of new artists into the setting.

"I've been here since the spring, and this space is just ideal for artists,"

she said. "It has high beamed ceilings, great open spaces and the light is

just wonderful.

"It's primarily a working studio space, but we plan to have an open house

where we can exhibit and visitors can come into the studio and relax. We have

a lot of visitors come into the studio who might be interested in seeing this

work, and we're always open to them."

The most enticing part of the studio space for Ms Corrigan is the fact that

she lives in Trumbull, and the drive to Shelton takes just under 20 minutes.

Judith Corrigan majored in art in college, and continued with post-graduate

studies at the Art Students League in New York City. She is now a full-time

painter and works out of her studio in Shelton. She is also an adjunct

professor of art and art history at Housatonic Community-Technical College.

She won an artist's residency at NALL Arts Foundation in Provence, which led

recently to two exhibitions in France.

"There is nothing like painting in a place that is so steeped in antiquity and

the spirit of art," the artist said. "I loved living and working with the

figures, the architecture and stone surfaces I found in the French

countryside."

Ms Corrigan exhibited recently at Gallery Nouveau Aurore, in Tourrettes Sur

Loup, and Maison des Artists in Cagnes-Sur-Mer in France. Additional recent

exhibitions include one at Rockefeller Gallery in New York City, an

international show at Gallery Courtyard in Katonah, N.Y., and at The Silo in

New Milford. Her work is in private collections in France, Sweden, Germany and

the United States.