The Dublin Community Center will host a reception for two featured artists, Scott Niemi and the late Byron L. Levy, on Friday, Feb. 13, from 5 to 7 p.m. at DubHub Art.
Niemi and Ron Levy, Byron Levy’s son, will be at the DubHub at 5:45 to answer questions and talk about the work.
Both artists were inspired by the nature and scenery of New England.
Niemi, a Fitzwilliam resident, is a professor of art and design at Clark University in Worcester who has exhibited his work around the country.
“It’s my first time showing at the DubHub and I’m excited about it — it’s a very nice space,” Niemi said.
Niemi will be exhibiting landscapes from his personal experiences, including travel around New England.
“Wherever I go, I take photos, and then I sort through all those thousands of photos to find the best ones and make paintings from those,” Niemi said.
Niemi says nature is his primary focus as an artist.
The DubHub show includes Niemi’s paintings of the Bridge of Flowers in Shelburne, Mass., the covered bridge over the Ashuelot River, harbor and boat scenes in Rockport, Mass., and Boothbay, Maine, and scenes from Niemi’s own wooded backyard in Fitzwilliam.
“We have 11 acres here in Fitzwilliam, and I am constantly inspired by it. Nature is always changing,” Niemi said.
During the pandemic, when Niemi had to teach remotely, he used the time at home to explore his property.
“Walking around the property, I discovered a stream which I had never noticed was there, and now I’ve painted it in all different seasons,” he said.
Niemi paints primarily in acrylic paint. The show includes 23 acrylic works and one oil.
“I dallied in abstraction for a while, but a few years ago, when I switched to acrylics, I went back to mostly landscapes. Nature has more than enough source material,” he said.
Niemi’s work is available at artwanted.com/niemi.
Byron Levy of Hancock will talk about his late father’s work and his own journey of helping to preserve and “find foster homes” for the thousands of paintings and drawings his father left behind.
The younger Levy has been exhibiting his father’s work around the region since Byron Levy died in his 90’s in 2015.
“This show includes a lot of new pieces that we have not exhibited before, many of them inspired by New England and by this area,” Levy said.
The DubHub show includes Byron Levy’s paintings of the Monadnock region, including Harrisville, the north shore of Boston, including Marblehead and Rockport, plus Nantucket and Provincetown, as well as his native New Orleans and scenes in Europe.
Levy’s father spent many summers with his son and family in Nelson and painted many local landmarks. Levy says the first time he displayed his father’s art at a show in Nelson, more than half of the works sold.
“My mission in my retirement is to go through all my father’s art. A lot of it, I had never seen before — once he stored them away, he forgot about them. A lot of his work is of this area, and he framed a lot of those because he really loved them,” Ron Levy said.
One painting on display at the DubHub depicts the familiar “Motif #1,” which Yankee magazine called “the most painted building in the world.”
“It’s a building in Rockport, it’s very charming, and everyone paints, and apparently, my dad did too,” Ron Levy said.
Levy says his father’s body of work is unusual in that “it really spans the decades.” He has fond memories of helping his father paint by dipping Spanish moss in paint and dabbing it on paper in the 1960s.
“My dad painted steadily, my whole life — he was so prolific. He ran a business and worked full-time his whole life, but he was always very involved in local art associations; that was his passion,” Ron Levy said. “It’s been amazing, looking through his work, to find things he did from before I was born, right up to a painting that he had framed one week before he died.”
The exhibit will be available for viewing and purchase from Feb. 13 through March 5 whenever the DubHub is open, and by appointment. A closing event, “Coffee & Conversation with the Artists,” will be held on Thursday, March 5, from 10 a.m. to noon.
To make an appointment, email info@dublincommunitycenter.org.
