Favorite Places: Travel and East End Landscapes by Eileen Dawn Skretch

Artist’s
Reception :  Saturday, September 7, from
2:30 to 4:30 p.m.

Raised in
Southampton as part of a farming family, Eileen Dawn Skretch has a natural affinity
for the landscape of the East End.  Her childhood
memories are steeped in images of the fields, waterways and sky of the region,
and her love of those sweeping vistas permeates all of her landscape paintings.

From Long
Island to every place she’s traveled, it is the sweeping view that catches her
fancy.  “As enchanted as a medieval
French town may appear, my heart goes out to the countryside,” she says. “The
colors in the pastures and dirt, that different color blue sky with heavy puffy
clouds.  I find even the color of fog can
be very different from the East End – and all very exciting.”

Ms. Skretch
paints with oil colors on wood.  She
begins with a 4x8-foot sheet of birch veneered plywood.  Doing all her own woodworking, she creates
panels as small as 4x6 inches to larger sizes up to 6 feet in length.  The wood grain itself is an essential aspect
of the design, becoming the pattern of the clouds or ripples in the water.  Painting en
plein air when possible, Eileen prefers to work small before bringing
studies and reference photos back to the studio for larger works.

Her work has
been exhibited on the East End at: the Grenning Gallery in Sag Harbor; The
Wallace Gallery and The Clinton Academy in East Hampton; the Bridgehampton
Historical Museum; the Southampton Historical Museum; and her paintings are
displayed year-round at the South Street Gallery in Greenport. In New York City
she has shown at the Salmagundi Art Club and the National Art Club. 

Art Gallery
Committee member Lulie Morrisey is Chair of this show, which will be on display
from September 5 to 29.