Artist Benita Gowen to show works at Middle Street Gallery
The Middle Street Gallery, a 20-person non-profit artist’s cooperative in Washington, VA, will show the works of member Benita Rauda Gowen during the month of September.
The show is titled New Directions. Gowen is a Latvian-born watercolorist working in the new medium of collage. There will be a reception on Saturday, Sept. 6 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m, open to the public.
A reviewer, artist Barbara Heile, describes New Directions as “a powerful show — mystical, abstract, meditative, buoyant, voluptuous and drenched with color and texture. These new works are a very exciting expression for a seasoned watercolorist.”
Benita’s venture into collage began as part of a collaborative project at the Gallery in which artists shared work with one another with an open invitation to elaborate on each original piece. Benita says this experience provided an opening which she followed deep into the use of color. Painting tissue papers to use in the collages she began using yarns from her years of creative knitting to give her the use of line and continued the layering process with various richly textured and fine fabrics.
The result of this process is “breathtaking,” Heile says. Woven Dreams is a diptych of “boldly feminine forms and colors”. Exuberant Flowers, a Japanese paper collage with acrylic and watercolor, “explodes with color.” Women’s faces appear in many of the collages as “non-verbal signs expressing ownership of this deeply feminine work”.
The show runs through September 28. The Middle Street Gallery is open Friday through Sunday, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and by appointment by calling the artist at 540-675-2362.
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