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Friday, May 16, 2008

THE ARTS

Group exhibition at Elizabethan Gallery

  • By ANNE PRICE
  • Advocate arts critic
  • Published: May 11, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

Small groups of work by individual artists dot the floor of Elizabethan Gallery, 680 Jefferson Highway, most of the time.

The result is basically several small shows within a single large exhibition space, and it showcases work of the area’s contemporary realistic artists.

The fact that this gallery permits artists to show a group of works rather than a single painting or sculpture makes this a place to get a handle on what people in this area are creating these days in the way of contemporary realistic art.

Showing through May are a smashing collection of individually framed flower arrangement close-ups of blossoms, some six to eight in all, by Alla Baltas, and landscapes by April Hammock. A single dramatic portrait of a woman, the work of May Krouziger, is also on the wall.

Paintings by Kim Schnarr put the viewer in another world — a place where green dominates life. She places more variations on the simple color, green, than I would have deemed possible and creates a place of simple and glorious beauty.

Baltas’ flower paintings simply pay homage to the splendor of blossoms, giving each flower a distinct personality to complement the immediate impact of its beauty.

Hammock pays tribute to the drama of a winding highway, running through the fields and valleys to an indefinite goal. A line of landscape defines the boundary of the painting, with large tree trunks highlighting the road itself.

Each of the groups of paintings emphasizes the importance of natural beauty in all of our lives, and makes us take another look around us at the Louisiana landscape and its endless detail and dignity.

The work also inspires respect for the creativity of Louisiana artists, who transfer a smattering of the natural beauty around us to canvas so we can take it with us and hang it on our walls. Next to the real thing, a painting of the leaf, the flower, the glory of the simple landscape assumes a monumental importance in our lives.

Elizabethan Gallery offers so much art and so much variety that the needs of almost anyone can be satisfied in the expansive space.


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