Three painters of European countrysides at Redfish Art Studio and Gallery

Painting by Barbara Tanke

On the second floor of an old factory building in a series of well lit, whitewashed stalls, are the confines of the redFISH Art Studio and Gallery. This collective is presently featuring the transatlantic offerings of three artists working in the traditional media of acrylic on canvas, depicting vignettes of travel in Europe. The paintings of Barbara Tanke, Ann Margaret Munley, and Jennifer Seth-Cumini take in landscapes and figures, local color depicted in photo-like snapshots that bring a sense of the visited places—vistas of coastlines and country lanes and houses. Some pieces are more formally styled in mixed media, combining cropped images on small canvas panels fixed to portions of maps relevant to the countries of England, Scotland, and Ireland, all sealed in shadow boxes.

The main body of work is Tanke’s, the result of plein d’air excursions as part of a group painting trip to the south of France near the Mediterranean in the region of the Languedoc. Here at two sites, Moux and Collioure, are painting retreats sponsored by the redFISH Gallery, where one may draw and paint what one experiences in exposure to a rural French village.

Monet, Van Gogh, and later Durain and Matisse all went to the south of France because they were broke and could not any longer stand barely eking out a living in Paris. It was relatively inexpensive to live in the south in the late 19th and early 20th century. There each discovered what the light of the Mediterranean sky did to the appearance of the unspoiled countryside, rolling vineyards, and ancient castles that inspired their palettes.

The opportunity to do just that—to be inspired by nature and the works of man in a foreign country—is a dream that resonates with many people, especially those in or nearing retirement. And the opportunity is available to those who have $2,850 dollars to spend on such a trip. Not many artists can spare the time to retreat from debt service long enough to really experience a a picturesque rural village in France. Instead, the waking life of artists everywhere is as often as not transformative mainly through the spirit of “coping” with everything outside the creative inner solo journey. Their art is their invested capital in their own lives. The paintings at redFISH affirm that such journeys may often bring the provincial to the Provencal, to the mutual investment of both.