Earthly Delights: Al Jaeger and Molly Wensberg

McGowan Fine Art announces the opening of “Earthly Delights: Al Jaeger and Molly Wensberg”. This show brings together two NH artists who are creating work inspired by the natural beauty of the region’s landscape. The show will run June 5 – July 13, with a reception taking place Friday, June 8, 5 to 7 PM. The reception is free and open to the public.

Ceramic artist Al Jaeger has worked and resided on his Deerfield, NH farm for nearly 50 years. During this time, Al has opened his studio and mentored hundreds of students and artists. For this show, Al will have wood fired stoneware letters on display. “I have always been fascinated by letters and their forms.” He arranges the letters individually, or in aesthetically interesting combinations. Al will also have wall hangings on display. Materials come from his surroundings – clay from the bottom of a nearby pond, chips of granite from NH’s mountains picked up by Al during a hike, coffee grounds, or gravel from his own driveway. He is fascinated by the varied ways these materials respond to the heat of the kiln. Al uses glazes sparingly. Instead, to achieve rich color variations, he rearranges pieces in the kiln, creating “flashings” of orange, gold, tan, or purple.

Al Jaeger is a member of the New Hampshire Potter’s Guild, and has work in private and public collections, including the Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH.

Molly Wensberg has been drawn to the “honest simplicity” of the NH landscape since she moved to the state in 1998. Her oil paintings represent a sense of the landscape rather than specific local information. “I want you to hear the quiet, smell the cut fields, and feel the cold, the damp, or the warmth.” While Molly will have mostly landscapes on display, this show will also include interior scenes and still-life paintings.

Molly begins by painting small studies, preferring studies over photographs, as they allow her to better capture the feeling, emotions, and atmosphere of a space. Layers of pigment, loosely applied utilizing a marriage of palette knife and brush, successfully exude Wensberg’s sensibility for “less is more…What is left out is as important as what is put in.” With today’s constant visual noise and clutter, the artist provides the viewer with “quiet places where the mind can rest.” Molly continues exploring a pale, monochromatic color palette, while her use of a palette knife adds notes of sparkle, particularly in her seascapes and lake scenes, such as “Summer Lake” or “Green Day”.

Molly Wensberg is a member of the New Hampshire Art Association. She has been included in numerous shows throughout the region, and has work in private and corporate collections.