Lucia and Rosemary hang the display in the Gallery at Town Hall.
On Wednesday, May 8, the Orange Arts and Culture Council will host an opening reception for artist Rosemary Benivegna (Yes, that IS the correct spelling of her last name — not to be confused with Bencivengo, like John, the chef) at the Gallery at Town Hall from 5-8 p.m.
Orange Live met Rosemary recently when she and Lucia Bloom from the Arts Council were hanging her show in the gallery.
The first thing you may notice when you look at her display is the use of vivid color, some cubist-type pieces next to captivating picturesque landscapes and some very familiar places from right here in Orange.
Rosemary took an interesting path to becoming a painter. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Interior Design from Pratt Institute, but shortly after starting her first job in a large New York architectural firm, she returned to school to study architecture. She received a Master of Architecture Degree from Columbia University and worked as an architect beginning in 1972. In recent years, she went back to her roots in Fine Art.
Since 2003, Rosemary studied drawing, pastel and watercolor painting at the Creative Arts Workshop in New Haven and at other workshops in the New York and New England area.
Subject matter for her paintings has been taken from her excursions to landscape and urban settings and can be divided into three categories; assemblages of New England architecture, transformed into simplified, dramatic compositions using analogous or complimentary colors; candid glimpses of people in exterior settings, which tell a story for the observer; and simplified, emotionally charged landscapes of saturated colors, which express a mood, rather than depicting a reality. Daytime becomes dusk; evening becomes mooring, depending upon her chosen color pallet.
She has a keen eye for subject matter, two women talking outside a cafe, for instance makes you wonder, what are they talking about? How well do they know one another?
Her landscapes seem familiar but she does take some liberties, such as adding a walking path behind the Ewen Barn to make the scene more interesting.
She is a member of the Connecticut Watercolor Society, Hamden Art League, Orange Arts & Culture Council and the Arts Council of Greater New Haven and has been in solo and group shows in Connecticut since 2007.
All of the paintings in this show can be made into colored prints on quality paper, matted and ready for framing at a reduced cost. For information call 203-891-9153 or e-mail rbenivegna@optonline.net
Stop by the Gallery at Town Hall, across from the First Selectman’s Office, tomorrow before or after you vote in the Amity Referendum, and meet Rosemary.
Bonnie Copolla of the Orange Arts & Culture Council approached the Orange Community Services Department in collaborating in the creation of a Kindness Rock Garden.
