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CLOSED AND
WIDE-OPEN SPACES Nancy Meagher Thursday, April 3 through Saturday, April 26, 2025 OPENING RECEPTION: Thursday, April 3, 5–7:00 |
CLOSED AND WIDE-OPEN SPACES
New Paintings by Nancy Meagher
In CLOSED AND WIDE-OPEN SPACES, painter Nancy Meagher explores the external structure and internal character of several historic houses in Amherst and the contrasting landscapes of Cape Cod and western Massachusetts. Intimate paintings of flowers, all in bloom, echo the idea of “blossoming open.”
For several years, Meagher has painted interpretations of the Emily Dickinson Homestead, in all seasons, different hours, and many types of weather. Austin Dickinson’s elegant mansion next door also becomes subject matter, and for this exhibit, she turns to the stately symmetry and archways of the Henry Hills House on Main Street in Amherst. A funkier architectural energy caught her eye in Provincetown, with the buildings that huddled along the harbor. “The Mardi Gras feeling of Provincetown’s Commercial Street at night is represented in my painting of the Lobster Pot restaurant with its red-neon sign reflecting on both the building and the street,” she says.
New Paintings by Nancy Meagher
In CLOSED AND WIDE-OPEN SPACES, painter Nancy Meagher explores the external structure and internal character of several historic houses in Amherst and the contrasting landscapes of Cape Cod and western Massachusetts. Intimate paintings of flowers, all in bloom, echo the idea of “blossoming open.”
For several years, Meagher has painted interpretations of the Emily Dickinson Homestead, in all seasons, different hours, and many types of weather. Austin Dickinson’s elegant mansion next door also becomes subject matter, and for this exhibit, she turns to the stately symmetry and archways of the Henry Hills House on Main Street in Amherst. A funkier architectural energy caught her eye in Provincetown, with the buildings that huddled along the harbor. “The Mardi Gras feeling of Provincetown’s Commercial Street at night is represented in my painting of the Lobster Pot restaurant with its red-neon sign reflecting on both the building and the street,” she says.
Meagher also explores what she calls “the yin-yang of two very different but equally compelling landscapes” in her paintings of the wide-open ocean at Provincetown and the towering oak trees pressing close together around her favorite haunt of Puffers Pond in Amherst.
Pond or ocean, Provincetown or Amherst, iconic house or landscape view—all are conjured in layers upon layers of color and texture. Meagher manipulates the paint using palette knives, brushes inherited from a fellow painter, and rubber wedges. “Most exciting of all,” she adds, “I sometimes press gloved hands into the paint to mix the colors and smear them onto the canvas.” Working and re-working the canvas, she pushes on toward abstraction.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Meagher holds a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design, and a MEd from Lesley College Graduate School, Cambridge, MA. She is an educator with The Mill River Greenway Initiative and is the artist/author of “Millicent and the Day it Rained Buttons, a Mill River Fish Tale” and the author of a poetry chapbook, “Morning After Several Days of Rain.”
Pond or ocean, Provincetown or Amherst, iconic house or landscape view—all are conjured in layers upon layers of color and texture. Meagher manipulates the paint using palette knives, brushes inherited from a fellow painter, and rubber wedges. “Most exciting of all,” she adds, “I sometimes press gloved hands into the paint to mix the colors and smear them onto the canvas.” Working and re-working the canvas, she pushes on toward abstraction.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Meagher holds a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design, and a MEd from Lesley College Graduate School, Cambridge, MA. She is an educator with The Mill River Greenway Initiative and is the artist/author of “Millicent and the Day it Rained Buttons, a Mill River Fish Tale” and the author of a poetry chapbook, “Morning After Several Days of Rain.”