It’s been a while since I wrote, and I need to catch up. A year ago I was preparing work for a solo show at Elizabeth Moss Gallery, titled “The Nature of Water”, paintings inspired by a residency in Iceland. I was thrilled to present my series about Icelandic water movement after having been delayed by the pandemic. Concurrently I was preparing for my first show at Cynthia Winings Gallery, in Blue Hill, “Quarry Rain”, achromatic paintings representing water surface and atmosphere in the Addison quarry. Both series express my interest in capturing moments in which water interacts with light as it moves through the landscape.
Skogafoss Mist, 11x14, gouache on yupo, 2018
Quarry Rain 6, 26x20, oil on yupo, 2022
In preparing each of these series for exhibit, I experimented with adhering works on paper to panel so that they could be varnished and shown without glass, a process that enhanced the presentation and which I will use again.
Cascade Fragment 3, 16x12, gouache on paper on panel, 2022
In June I was evicted from my studio of twenty-three years due to a building sale to new owners with dreams of luxury apartments. This was totally disruptive to my work, requiring finding a new space and moving decades of painting inventory to a new site. I ended up in a small studio a few blocks away, and after many chaotic months, continued my practice, albeit, in closer quarters.
The silver lining to sorting and moving, was that I was prepared when St. Joseph Hospital in Bangor expressed an interest in showing a large body of my work in one of their medical, administrative wings of the hospital, where it will reside for a year. It has been lovely to have forty years of work on view for members of the community and staff to see during their medical visits or daily movement through those corridors.
Nina Jerome painting exhibit, Cam Wing, St.Joseph Hospital, Bangor Maine. (Pictured: “State Street”, “Winter Power 11, Twilight”, “Borestone Summer”).
My work with “Quarry Reflections” and Maine landscape continues and I will post about this soon as I prepare for future exhibits.