Three-Artist Show At WAA

WASHINGTON DEPOT — Washington Art Association is presenting this month the work of three women artists who bring fresh and unexpected material to the grey of winter. An exhibition featuring works by Colleen Kinsella, Joan Morosani and Edith Read opened on Groundhog Day and will remain on view until February 28.

Colleen Kinsella, born in White Plains, N.Y., graduated from Syracuse University with honors and holds a BFA in photography and printmaking. Ms Kinsella’s art reminds many viewers us of Picasso’s “Minotaur” series of drawings and etchings with their line complexity and intensive demands on the eye of the observer.

An extremely multitalented young woman, she also currently sings and plays with a band, Fire on Fire, in Portland, Me., where she lives and works. She has participated in numerous group exhibitions and community events and in 2006 curated forty artists and performers for a two month Festival of Arts there.

Litchfield resident Joan Morosani has devoted most of the past 22 years to artistic achievement in painted furniture and mural work. Earning a Journeyman designation from Isabelle O’Neil Studio in New York City, where she also teaches, Ms Morosani is known by decorators as a source for the old world finishes, now in demand, for their high-end interiors.

Ms Morosani graduated in 1975 from Sarah Lawrence, and subsequently studied at the Art Students League with Robert Beverly Hale. At the National Academy, also in New York City, she continued her work with Peter Cox, Barbara Grossman and Burton Silverman, developing her current Cezanne-like style.

Edith Read rounds out the group with her extensive academic background. She holds a BA from Boston University, cum laude, in Art History (‘72), a Professional Diploma (‘78) from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and an MFA (‘95) from Massachusetts College of Art, Boston. She has been teaching since 1982 and is currently a full time professor in studio art at Assumption College in Worcester, Mass.

“I have a physical reaction to compelling ideas and situations,” she said. “The desire to understand these drives my work.”

She works in wood because “it can be used to construct: wood provides structure and is a lovely rigid surface for paint.” As for her drawings, she continues: “Drawing meets a physical response. It’s a speedy and spontaneous way to start something. Gesture communicates. It is a universal language.”

Washington Art Association’s gallery, within the plaza at 4 Bryan Memorial Plaza, is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm and Sunday from noon to 5. For additional information call 860-868-2878 or visit WashingtonArt.org.