'Rough at Hand,' Solo Show of Paintings by Carrie Jacobson

“Rough at Hand” a solo exhibit by Carrie Jacobson, and a group exhibit of senior artists and veterans, along with emerging artist Judith MacCalla, will be on view from Feb. 1-28, with a reception for all three exhibits on Sat., Feb. 5, from 5-7 p.m. Free and open to the public. Gallery hours are Tues.-Sun., 9 a.m. to 6p.m.

“Rough at Hand”  showcases Jacobson's palette-knife painting style in animal portraits and landscapes from the mid-Hudson Valley to the Connecticut shore, to the Atlantic provinces of Canada.

Jacobson’s love of paint itself shows in the deep, nearly sculptural surfaces of her work. Her style, with its three-dimensional textures, its brilliant colors and its loose approach, puts a rich and contemporary slant on traditional landscape and plein-air painting.

 Jacobson began painting in 2007, when she was 50. Untaught, and never having wanted to paint, she had the urge to make a portrait of her dogs, to give to her husband for a Christmas present. That first painting seemed to catch flame from a fire already burning inside her; she loved it, she excelled at it, and she found in it a means of expression she’d never known she had. 

Having begun painting on her own, Jacobson took classes at the Wallkill River School, studying with founders Shawn Dell Joyce and Gene Bove. She enrolled in the plein-air painting group.

Painting has continued to light Jacobson’s path, even through some of life’s darker passages.

She was working as the Sunday editor at the Times Herald-Record when her friend and the editor of the paper, Mike Levine, died. Four months later, her job was eliminated.

She moved from the mid-Hudson Valley back to her home in Connecticut, and launched a professional painting career. For more than a year, she made a painting every day, using the pieces as the basis for her blog, The Accidental Artist (carriejacobson.blogspot.com).

She was accepted into local, regional and national juried shows. Her work sold in galleries and on line. In 2010, she was accepted into some of the best outdoor art fairs in New England, where buyers and collectors sought her out and purchased her work. These include Paradise City in Northampton and Marlborough, Mass.; the Wickford, R.I. Outdoor Art Festival, and the Mystic (Conn.) Outdoor Art Festival. 

These days, in addition to painting, Jacobson is the local editor of the Montville Patch. She also writes for the online journal, Zest of Orange.

Jacobson also is the co-founder of the Art for Shelter Animals Project. Artists from around the world make paintings of animals in their local shelters or with local rescue groups, and then donate the paintings to the shelter or rescue group. Though the blog and the project are in a bit of a lull now, you can find them at artforshelteranimals.blogspot.com. Art for Shelter Animals painters from around the world participated last summer in a show in Port Jervis, to benefit the Port Jervis-Deerpark shelter.

“Rough at Hand” shows Jacobson’s love of the natural world and all its creatures. From Canadian cows to New York state dogs, from the mountains of Arizona to the wild seacoast of Cape Breton Island, nature and its creatures live on Jacobson’s canvases, where the wind blows and the snow swirls, and the animals look out at you with their souls showing.

You may see more of her work at Jacobson-arts.com, or carriejacobson.blogspot.com.  Jacobson is represented by the Wallkill River School Gallery and Center Framing & Art in West Hartford Center, Conn. Click here to read about her current show.

"Rough at Hand" comes from a poem by Robert Hegge: 

"Love is like a landscape which doth stand,

Smooth at a distance, rough at hand."