Date: Fri 20-Jun-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Quick Words:

McEvoy-pastel-Vineyards-art

Full Text:

A Year At McLaughlin Vineyards: The Pastel Series By Dick McEvoy

(with photos)

BY SHANNON HICKS

When a vineyard's growing season is at its peak, farmers pull in their harvest

by plucking grapes from the vines. It is one of the biggest times of the year

for vineyard owners, who count on the grapes they have grown to be turned into

wine.

The farmer then turns around and restarts the process of planting new grapes.

Vines are watched year-round to make sure they are coming in healthy, and for

the first sign of grape buds. After the buds turn into grapes, at the peak of

their flavor, the grapes are once again harvested. Like clockwork, the grape

farming cycle continues year after year, during the four seasons and in every

kind of weather.

Newtown artist Richard McEvoy has spent much of his time during the past year

at McLaughlin Vineyards, a working vineyard in Sandy Hook. He has been

observing the vineyard's fields, vines and surrounding landscape through all

four seasons. He captured on paper and in photographs the natural changes at

the vineyard. Using these drawings and photographs, he would then return to

his studio to create pastels that depict McLaughlin Vineyards at different

times of the year.

On Sunday afternoon, June 22, Grey Horse Gallery in Sandy Hook will present an

opening reception of Dick McEvoy's latest series of paintings. The exhibit,

"Tour The Seasons At McLaughlin Vineyards," is the resulting series of works

by Dick from his year spent visiting the vineyard. The exhibition, a series of

twenty impressionist pastels, will continue until August 31 at the Sandy Hook

gallery.

It will then move to the wine tasting barn at the vineyard - the same barn

portrayed in a number of the pastels -for a showing in September and October,

during the vineyard's harvest months.

"I love Europe, especially France," Mr McEvoy said recently. "[The vineyard]

reminded me of Europe. I love the feeling of wineries in Europe, and I felt

McLaughlin Vineyards is our little corner right here in Newtown.

"I went to a jazz concert there, had a wonderful night, and I love looking

around, so I approached Morgen [McLaughlin, the vineyard owner and manager]

and asked if I could do a series of paintings."

The jazz concert was not the first time Dick has been to the vineyard, but it

was one of many that confirmed his first impression of the beauty of the

property. On his first visit, in March of 1996, he took a photograph of the

main driveway leading to the McLaughlin wine tasting barn. That photograph

resulted in the pastel titled "Up The Road - Spring Impression."

Dick was at Grey Horse Gallery last weekend, hanging most of the exhibition.

Nineteen of the twenty pieces in the show have been up since last Saturday.

The works in general are grand pieces, showing the landscape of the vineyard

from different views. There are many that include the various fields of the

farm, and a number of the main driveway with a field on one side. There is

also a set that shows a large tree with a stone bench beneath it, a peaceful,

inviting scene in any season.

Of the series, all but one is a large-scale impressionist piece. The one small

work included is called "Grapes." It is a close-up view of Aurora grapes, the

grapes used to make one of the vineyard's white table wines, hanging on the

vine at their peak.

"That painting took longer than the rest," Dick laughed. "I don't like finite

detail, and you don't get as much of a sense of impression when you go close

up." It is a wonderful piece, nevertheless. Although small in size, it is

eye-catching and charming.

The one painting that was not hung last weekend is called "Harvest Time." The

work depicts vineyard manager Morgen McLaughlin and a friend when they were

working in the fields last summer, picking Aurora grapes by hand. The pastel

was finished, but unframed. Gallery owner Darryl Ifkovic promised to have the

work framed by the end of the week.

This is not the first time an artist has approached vineyard manager Morgen

McLaughlin. It is, however, the first time she has heard of, and invited to

see, the finished product.

"There was an artist, about two years ago," she said this week. "He said he

was going to do something similar to what Dick did, put something together

over the span of a year. But I never saw the finished works. He just showed me

the pictures he took that he was working from.

"I've seen two of [Dick McEvoy's] works so far," she continued. She had not

yet seen "Harvest Time," but had looked two other scenes.

"I think he has a good use of color. He has a real understanding of the change

of the seasons, and I thought that was well portrayed." Ms McLaughlin plans on

attending the opening reception Sunday afternoon, her first chance to see the

series as a whole.

The two works she saw, "McLaughlin Vineyards - Fall Impression" and

"McLaughlin Vineyards - Winter Impression," were included in the Society of

Creative Arts of Newtown Spring Juried Show in May. Dick also had work

included in the Bethel Art League's spring show in April, and he has work in

"Renaissance Pastel," the fourth annual national exhibition of the Connecticut

Pastel Society Annual Show. That show continues until July 18 at Choate

Rosemary Hall School in Wallingford.

Closer to home, Dick McEvoy is no stranger to Grey Horse Gallery, nor its

clients. Dick is one of two artists, the other being photographer Karl Decker,

who has a permanent exhibit at the gallery.

In addition to the McLaughlin series, currently there are 15 McEvoy works

hanging at the gallery. Dick McEvoy's work has been showcased on the gallery's

back wall - the full wall which greets any visitor to the shop when they walk

through the front door - almost since the day Darryl Ifkovic opened Grey Horse

in Sandy Hook.

The scenes are fairly local. There is one of Ram Pasture, a well-known field

near the center of Newtown; and there is a depiction of a field opposite

Ferris Farm, a family-run dairy farm, on Route 302. There is also an easily

recognizable picture of Goodspeed Opera House in Essex, and a sledding scene

he created with his own ideas, among the pieces.

Darryl Ifkovic is the owner of Grey Horse Gallery, located in the familiar

building that formerly housed the Sandy Hook Post Office. While Grey Horse has

been in existence for nearly 13 years, the business has been in the Sandy Hook

landmark building for the past two.

"He has such a variety," Ms Ifkovic said earlier this week. "He uses a

different palette for each painting. Each painting is fresh, with a different

look.

"Usually artists gets locked into a palette, certain colors they use over and

over. They get a recipe that works and they stay with it. But Dick's [color

choice] is very varied. And he paints well in different sizes."

Visitors to the gallery this week, where the works are already on the walls,

have commented similarly, Ms Ifkovic added.

Dick McEvoy works in pastels. While he has worked in art of one form or

another much of his life, he has been dedicated to pastels for 11 years. He

began by drawing at an early age ("That's how you start, really," he says),

but quickly moved on to canvases.

While a student at Brown University, Dick took additional courses at Rhode

Island School of Design. After transferring to Wharton Business School, he

rearranged his entire second year so he could take a class with Violette

Demazia. Ms Demazia was 88 years old at the time, and still teaching classes

at The Barnes Foundation, a magnificent 23-room mansion/institute in

Pennsylvania she had co-founded with her partner Dr Barnes.

Students at the Foundation were surrounded by over 1,000 Impressionist

originals by the likes of Matisse, Renoir, Picasso and other contemporary

masters. At the time, the only way anyone would have the opportunity to view

the pieces was to take a class.

Students had the unique opportunity to study the originals, some of which were

hung three and four deep on the mansion's 30-foot high walls. After Violette

Demazia's death (Dr Barnes had died during the 1960s), the mansion was turned

into a museum and opened to the public.

Dick has since continued his education by taking workshops with master

pastelists Hermann Margulies and Daniel Greene, sculptor and painter Pascal

Regan, and pastelist Sally Strand. Dick usually goes away one week a year,

either on his own or with another artist, to concentrate on painting. He also

is a member of The Cobblestone Art Group, a small collective that meets

twice-monthly.

Even with all the time he devotes to his art, Dick still works a full-time

job. He is a management consultant with Michael Allen Co. in Westport. He and

his wife, Jane, and their family have lived in town for 16 years.

"Tour The Seasons At McLaughlin Vineyards" is Dick McEvoy's first one-man show

of this scope.

"I'm really pleased [with the new series]," Ms Ifkovic said. "It really

enhances our gallery.

"It's a nice amount of work. And I think it's fascinating that he did the same

vineyard, and each painting looks so different."

Grey Horse Gallery is at 4 Berkshire Road (Route 34) in Sandy Hook. "Tour The

Seasons at McLaughlin Vineyards" opens Sunday, June 22, with a reception from

1-4 pm. The show then continues to August 31.