January 3, 2008

Local Color
The inner personalities of rubber finger puppets
By Heidi Masek hmasek@hippopress.com

• What a face: Katrina Balling’s oil paintings enlarge the human-like facial expressions of rolled eyes or smug looks of flea market porcelain figurines across a canvas. Balling keeps the focus on the figurines by setting them on high-gloss bold-colored backgrounds. Balling’s new work sets translucent rubber finger puppets on a sky background. The sky is a nod to the only nature Balling has found in Brooklyn, N.Y. The “rooftops are an oasis in the city, a place to get away, to be outside ... safely away, but in the middle of it all,” she said. Balling exhibits her work in “Room to Fly,” from Jan. 8 through Feb. 1 at McGowan Fine Art, 10 Hills Ave. in Concord, 225-2515, www.mcgowanfineart.com. Meet Balling at a reception Friday, Jan. 11, from 5 to 7 p.m. (Snow date Jan. 18.)

McGowan Fine Art and Kimball-Jenkins Estate are participating in Concord Garden Club’s sixth annual “Art in Bloom” show. During this weekend show, professional florists and members of the Bow and Concord garden clubs create arrangements inspired by artwork. At McGowan, florists will look to “Room to Fly,” as well as work from other gallery artists. Florists will interpret works by Erick Hufschmid and Amparo Carvajal-Hufschmid at Kimball-Jenkins, 266 North Main St. in Concord. “Art in Bloom” opens Thursday, Jan. 24, with a reception from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. with viewing hours Friday, Jan. 25, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday, Jan. 26, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

• Dabble: Peabody Mill Environmental Center of Amherst is offering off-site instruction in drawing, watercolor, oil, acrylics and pastel. Susan Peterson will offer exercises to improve drawing skills, composition and insight into art in “Art Instruction for Adults.” PMEC supplies some materials but encourages students to bring their own as well as photographs or still life objects to work from. Some classes may be outside. Six-week sessions start Jan. 8 and Feb. 19 and meet Tuesdays, from 9:30 to 11:30 p.m. at Parkhurst Place, 11 Veterans Road, Amherst. The session fee is $60. Call 673-5951.

• A walk: Yvonne Wheeler, Manchester Art Association’s 2007-2008 “artist of the year” exhibits paintings and pastels, “A Walk in the Woods,” at the Massabesic Audubon Center, 16 Audubon Way, Auburn, 668-2045, from Jan. 12 through Feb. 23.

—Heidi Masek

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