Artists celebrate the environment

“Artful Expressions from the Environment” at the ARTery Gallery in Milford, brings together selected works by long-standing member Randall FitzGerald and Scott and Debbie Helfand of Moonlight Crafts.

Retired educators, they now focus on their passion for creating with numerous materials, many of which are from nature.

FitzGerald, a multimedia artist, has consistently produced very popular images based on his travels and lifetime interest in the natural world. All longtime educators and friends, the three artists’ works compliment each others’ interests.

He has been photographing and painting for over 50 years. Professionally trained in the sciences as an ecologist, he has always found a way to incorporate his art into his scientific pursuits. His love for the natural world permeates his rural landscapes, seascapes, and bird paintings, with an added flare for romanticism.

Although FitzGerald has worked with oils, watercolors, inks, acrylics and encaustics, the artwork in this current exhibit is rendered using inks and acrylics on canvas. As an accomplished woodworker and ardent environmentalist, FitzGerald makes all his own frames, recycling materials from old flooring, table tops, siding, etc. Each piece of art is custom framed with these materials, cut and stained or painted to enhance each unique work of art.

Both potters, Scott and Debbie Helfand continually seek new ways to create aesthetic and functional art inspired by nature that are also in line with environmental friendliness. They have a deep affinity for recycling and reusing materials they repurpose into unique expressions of art. Having worked with clay for nearly twenty-five years, they also specialize in other art forms. Debbie works with pyrography (creative wood burning) and needlework. Scott works with live edge wood and steel to fabricate tables, with salvaged steel to create small sculptures, and fuses glass to produce jewelry, tableware and stained glass window pieces.

Meet Randall FitzGerald and the Helfands at the opening wine and cheese reception held for the public on Saturday, June 10 from 6-9 p.m. The month-long exhibit will be on display Thursday to Monday 10-6 p.m. through July 3.

The ARTery Gallery is a cooperatively owned and operated fine art gallery located in the historic Forest Hall building. It features an ever-changing variety of fine art and fine craft.

The ARTery Gallery is located at 210 Broad St. in Milford. For more information, call 570-409-1234 or log onto http://arterygallerymilford.com.