The Letter

We had a beautiful opening weekend. It is always a pleasure to see old and new friends, and the reaction to the exhibition was gratifying. Just as he did last year, our seven year old, Henry, and his cousins, sold flowers cut from the garden, American flags, and pine cones with glitter on them to […]

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Like so much in his studio, Ben Solowey made his easel, by hand. It stood center-stage for still lifes, portraits, and interiors, but at night he sometimes wheeled it in a cool corner and hung it with a damp towel so that the oil paint on his canvas would stay supple and wet. This “wet […]

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Here are some facts and figures for Saturday’s opening of AN INTIMATE VIEW: Small Paintings & Drawings by Ben Solowey. • There are over 70 pieces on the walls. In the Second Studio we have 39 lovely small works from just about every phase of Ben’s career. In the Main Studio, we have put together […]

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“Every picture tells a story,” so the saying goes. This week’s highlight from AN INTIMATE VIEW: Small Paintings & Drawings by Ben Solowey, has a story to tell as to why it has not been on view for 13 years at the Studio. It is a lovely pastel that dates from the last decade of […]

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Ben and Rae Solowey had just finished lunch on May 26, 1978, when the artist told his wife he was going to trim hedges by the stone steps that led to their house. The couple, married just two weeks shy of forty eight years, were expecting guests from England that Memorial Day weekend. Rae asked […]

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Painted screens were a major component of traditional Japanese architecture, and their decoration reflected the leading schools and movements in Japanese art. They served many purposes, being used for tea ceremonies, as backgrounds for concerts or dances, and as enclosures for Buddhist rites. Like many artists’ studios, the traditional Japanese house lacked permanent walls, thus […]

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In the early 1960s, on an overnight visit to New York, Rae discovered that she had forgotten her dressing gown. Her sister, Rick, with whom Ben and Rae were staying, offered her one she had just purchased. From the moment Rae slipped the peignoir on, all three realized it was something special to see Rae […]

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  There are landscapes, portraits, figurative pieces, and still lifes in our new show, WATER & LIGHT: The Watercolors of Ben Solowey, covering a nearly fifty year period. Almost exactly sixty four years from our June 7th opening you could have seen the same work Spring Flowers – Iris & Daisies at the opening of […]

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This fall and winter, the James A. Michener Art Museum exhibits the work of celebrated illustrators Norman Rockwell and Charles Hargens. Norman Rockwell in the 1940s: A View of the American Homefront and Charles Hargens: American Illustrator are on view at the Museum’s New Hope, Union Square location October 19, 2007 through February 10, 2008. […]

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We often are asked about conservation of paintings. For last seven years we have turned to Andrew Bertolino to do the conservation work for the Studio. Visitors to his website can see not only this Solowey painting before and after his conservation work, but other works as well. Since Andrew has completed the work on […]

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