Stairwell Gallery Will Host Opening Reception This Weekend

For Exhibition Of Works By Newtown Artist Ruth Newquist

WASHINGTON GREEN — An exhibition of watercolors entitled “Urban Energy,” featuring work by the Newtown artist Ruth Newquist, will be held in the Stairwell Gallery of Gunn Memorial Library from Saturday, September 5, until Saturday, October 17. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, September 5, from noon until 2 pm, and is free and open to the public.

Painting has been a lifelong journey for Ruth Newquist. Inspired by a childhood love of art, she attended Moore College of Art in Philadelphia, earning a BFA while studying with such great painters as Ranulph Bye, Reginald Marsh and Frank Reilly. She also attended the Art Students League in New York City.

“Color is my focus – it creates the mood. And each one of my paintings has its own mood,” the artist has said of her work.

Mrs Newquist is known for her New York SoHo cityscapes (such as “Sunscape,” shown here) as well as New England rural and urban landscapes. She is a signature artist member of the National Watercolor Society, and an artist member of the Salmagundi Club in New York City, as well as the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club and Allied Artists of America, North Shore Art Association in Gloucester, Mass., and Connecticut Watercolor Society.

“Painting is a driving force in my life. New York City is my favorite subject. I visit the city on sunny days and take lots of pictures,” said Mrs Newquist. “Since I’m a frequent visitor to the city, I have a clear feeling of what I want to capture.

“It gives me a joyous feeling to enter a city that stands for so many things: education, culture, and history, living today. I first look for buildings rich in character to set the stage: buildings with strong color, exciting imagery and dark, shadowy accents for punctuation,” she continued.

“I look for figures in action because they seem to be more involved in the scene. They become part of a moment in time in the life of the city. It is the people, sometimes dressed in outrageous outfits that give the city its energy.”

Mrs Newquist’s art was featured on the Watercolor Pages in American Artist Magazine June 1999. She is also represented in Best of Watercolor III, a hard cover book published by Rockport Publishers in 1999, and in Splash 9, a hard cover book published by North Light Books in 2006.

Ruth Newquist works out of her studio in Newtown. She exhibits her paintings throughout New England, Pennsylvania, New York and the West Coast. She has won many awards including the top watercolor award in the 2001 Salmagundi Club Annual Members Exhibition and the Thomas C. Picard Award for an oil painting in the 2002 Salmagundi Club Annual Members Exhibition.

Gunn Memorial Library is at the juncture of Route 47 and Wykeham Road, opposite the green in Washington. The library is open Monday and Friday from 9:30 am until 5 pm; Tuesday and Friday, 9:30 am to 5 pm; and Saturday, 9:30 am to 3 pm. It is open on Sundays only seasonally; call 860-868-7586 to check on hours or for additional information.