The Letter

WATER & LIGHT: The Watercolors of Ben Solowey, the ultimate collection of works in watercolor, casein, and gouache by Ben Solowey will open to the public on Saturday June 7th at the Solowey Studio in Bedminster, PA with a reception from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. The installation will continue Saturdays and Sundays, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., through June 29, 2008.

Acknowledged in his own day as an original and independent watercolorist, Ben Solowey had an intuitive relationship with this challenging yet flexible medium. A staple of his career, watercolors, and related media such as casein and gouache, were also his classroom, a way for him to learn through experimentation—with color theory, composition, materials, optics, style, subject matter, and technique, “far more freely than he could in the arena of oil painting,” says David Leopold, The Director of the Studio of Ben Solowey.” This exhibition provides an intimate look at how one of region’s most celebrated painters discovered for himself, over a period of more than five decades, the secrets of the watercolor medium.”

WATER & LIGHT: The Watercolors of Ben Solowey is the largest exhibition of Solowey’s watercolors ever to be presented. It features more than 40 rarely exhibited watercolors from the Solowey Studio’s collection that tells the story of Solowey’s development as an artist, presenting an intimate look at his watercolor practice, his techniques and materials, and the way he adapted his approach and his color palette to the many different environments in which he painted, from the quiet interior of his studio to the violent weather of an approaching storm. Throughout are works of his wife and primary model, Rae Solowey from soon after they first met and married through four decades of their life together.

The exhibition also examines the way Solowey’s watercolors relate to his work in oil and other media, revealing the central role the medium played in helping him to achieve the fresh, direct and beguiling scenes that have become his most enduring legacy to American art.

“With our Second Studio devoted to landscapes,” says David Leopold, Director of The Studio of Ben Solowey, “Ben’s main studio will feature a new installation of Solowey paintings, drawings, and sculpture.”