On Saturday, February 17th, The Art Place in downtown Wolfeboro will hold its semi–annual Peter Ferber Gallery Show featuring new original paintings by local well-known artist Peter Ferber. The unveiling and artist’s reception will commence at 9:30 a.m. All are welcome to attend and meet the artist.
Peter Ferber has been showing at The Art Place gallery in downtown Wolfeboro since the early 1990’s. Owner of The Art Place, Barbara Gibbs, talks about Peter and the upcoming show: “Peter creates works of art that inspire, and are inspired by the beauty that surrounds us here in the Lakes Region. Through his paintings, he takes the viewer to wondrous places and engages his audience with feelings of familiarity and nostalgia. He creates a sense of warmth and safe harbors through his images. He draws us, his viewer, into the image, moves and guides us through his mastery, and sooths us with memories and pleasant surroundings. As if placing us in a time capsule, he gives us a chance to escape and reflect.
She continues, “most people know Peter for his attention to detail; however, he has grown as an artist to now be able to step outside his comfort zone to create more impressionistic works of art. This upcoming show will feature both extremes, sometimes within the same painting.”
Peter talks about his artwork for the upcoming February show. “If I were to briefly describe the subjects of my paintings in this new show, it would probably sound like the same old thing that I’ve been doing for years. Yet for me this has been a very fresh, exciting and satisfying group of new work. My family members have commented on the usual variety. This comes thru in the color schemes and different viewpoints and compositions I’ve used in interpreting these familiar subjects. While many of them are the result of exploring some new places, a lot have also come from revisiting spots and things I’ve painted before. In going thru accumulated files of photographs, I’ve found “the [view] not taken”, to paraphrase Robert Frost’s famous poem –an approach or angle on the subject that I passed up on the first time around. It is so true that our perspective changes with time, and in revisiting these places I found strong painting ideas that hadn’t struck me before. There were also things I really liked but couldn’t figure out how to portray effectively, but now the way to do it came clear.
Arguing against variety would be the fact that half of the paintings have boathouses in them. But fortunately, to most people around here, that’s a good thing! I thought I was running low on attractive vintage boathouses as subjects for my cut-paper pieces, but then one came to mind that was located on the point right across the cove from our summer place. I’ve painted it a number of times, but realized that, while not as elaborate as some, it had good lines, shingled walls, nicely placed windows, and a couple of little covered porches on either side, all of which were wonderful elements for the cut-paper medium. This prompted childhood memories of an ancient cabin cruiser that lived in there and would emerge a couple of times a summer. So I had fun recreating that image in another painting, working completely from these memories, aided by several photos of the actual boat that came into my hands recently from the family. Other paintings look in thru windows and out thru doors of boathouses–and all filled with interesting details inside and out to discover. Several other pieces feature some old “camps” I’ve come across that evoke warm feelings of that wonderful summer lake life that so many of us can connect with.
Fall and winter also play small parts, as do moonlight and morning, crisp deep-colored renderings and softer, more impressionistic takes that make the work so interesting for me, and hopefully for the viewer. At least no one can use the cliché: when they’ve seen one of my paintings, they’ve seen them all!”
Since 1994 Peter Ferber has painted the official posters for the New England Chapter of the Antique and Classic Boat Society’s annual show, which also comes as highly collectable artist proofs. Peter has exhibited in over 50 shows in New England and the Midwest. More than 100 reproductions of his work have been made, including over 70 limited edition prints.
If there is a major weather event, the show will be postponed until Sunday, February 18th beginning at 11 a.m. Peter Ferber’s Gallery Show at The Art Place will be on display through March 3rd or as long as paintings are available. The Art Place is the exclusive gallery for Peter Ferber’s original artwork, and produces most of his limited edition prints. The Art Place is located at 9 North Main Street, downtown Wolfeboro, NH and is open year round. Our Winter hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 9:30 to 5. For more information, please call 603 5696159.
