The Pebble Hill Church Gallery at 320 Edison Furlong Road,  Doylestown, Pa.,  is hosting a solo exhibit of Hindu Deities and Nature by Om Shantih.  The exhibit will run through March 28.

Says Om Shantih:
“I dedicate this art to my spiritual Mother and teacher, Amma (Mata Amritanandamayi).  Through Amma I have learned to express Divine Love in art in the forms of Hindu and Buddhist deities, and nature. I am mostly drawn to painting the Hindu ‘pantheon’ of Gods as they represent the many faces and aspects of one God. Descriptions with each piece also show how they relate in everyday life to everyday (more…)

Jonathan Shahn is a crank. (It’s safe to write this, because he’s promised he will not read this article, although his wife might.)

That’s not the impression this writer formed, but one the sculptor seems bent on projecting. “Uncooperative” is the word he uses as his facial expression lights up in a smile, from his eyes to a mouth hidden behind a bush of a gray beard.

“Sweet” might be a more apt word to describe his nature, even as he tells a photographer he won’t do what he’s asked. Or “jovial.” He exudes something - call it charm or charisma - that makes his orneriness interesting.

And he’s good at changing the subject, but always to something interesting, such as the up-and-coming neighborhood of Brooklyn where his son lives, or the controversy over a yeshiva that moved into his hometown, Roosevelt, and may be bending zoning (more…)

And that’s also the title of this painting by Joe Kazimierczyk.

During the month of March, Artists’ Gallery is exhibiting the work of landscape painters Michael Schweigart and Joe Kazimierczyk in the gallery’s first show in its new location at 18 Bridge St., Lambertville. Both artists take their inspiration from the local landscape, each with his own way of looking at the world. Mr. Schweigart’s work is  rendered with an eye for fine detail, while Mr. Kazimierczyk takes a looser approach, painting in broad (more…)

As the Barnes Foundation gears up for its 2012 move from Merion Township to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia, I remember a trip I took there a few years ago: a last chance to view the collection in its original location.

It’s an art collector’s dream come true - all those rooms, all those walls, all that space for antique chests, teapots, wrought-iron bric-a-brac. Of course what Albert C. Barnes - doctor, scientist and businessman - had going for him was prescient taste and the funds to acquire the work of Matisse, Picasso, Cézanne, Renoir, Modigliani et al when those names were not quite household words.

Today, the Barnes Foundation houses one of the world’s richest collections of (more…)

What could be more fun that spring break? If only I were a kid, I’d sign up right away for Spring Break: The Art of Japan at the Arts Council of Princeton, March 29 - April 2, for ages 5-12.

“Journey to a place where past meets present, and discover a contemporary hybrid culture that combines influences from Asia, Europe , and the simplicity of Zen Buddhism,” says the promotional material. “From heroic Samurai to Animé, Spring Break campers will enjoy creating a variety of mixed media art projects (painting, (more…)

This quilt, “Where is the Quilt Show?” by Anna A. Faustino (The 2010 Quilt Fest of New Jersey, for which Ms. Faustino won “Best Pictorial Quilt,” is at the Garden State Exhibit Center, 50 Atrium Drive, Somerset, March 4-7), has me feeling all warm and nostalgic for the Chrysler Building.

I do love the way it’s presented here, with its rays accentuated, and with a moving billboard of the New York skyline plastered on its facade. The colors and shapes of this interpretation of the city pulsate. It reminds me of the day last month that my son Everett and I walked to Times Square. He wanted to take a photo, and when I teased him about that, he said fine, let’s sit down and draw it. (Did I mention it was 7 degrees that day?)

So we sat at the bistro tables that have been added to the road, now closed to traffic (no trouble getting a table that day!) and drew. It’s amazing how much more you see when you draw — the hot dog vendors, the pigeons. There’s just so much going on in (more…)

Henri Rousseau painted his amazing jungle scenes while working  as a tax collector in Paris. Herb Vogel worked as a postal clerk and his wife, Dorothy, worked as a librarian as they managed to build an impressive art collection.

Labyrinth Books in Princeton will host a screening and discussion of the film Herb & Dorothy Feb. 23,  6 p.m. The award-winning documentary is about a couple who built one of the most important contemporary art collections in history on a postal worker’s salary. (Read Seven Days in the Art World by Sarah Thornton as background.)

In the early 1960s, Herb and Dorothy Vogel began purchasing (more…)

It is tragic and sorrowful when a mighty old master tumbles to the ground, considering how many hundreds of years it took to reach that stature. Trees have so much to teach us. There is no man wiser than a tree, but there are others who can say this more poignantly than I:

“I frequently tramped eight or 10 miles through the deepest snow to keep an appointment with a beech-tree, or a yellow birch, or an old (more…)

Years ago, when his house was on the Princeton Area YWCA Rooms to View tour, I got my own private peek inside Michael Graves’ magnificent Mediterranean-style villa (one of the perks of being a journalist that compensates for the miniscule remuneration).

Mr. Graves, Robert Schirmer Professor of Architecture, Emeritus, at Princeton University, turned a former university textbook warehouse into an Italianate home. I remember two sarcophogi flanking the entryway, scored concrete floors and art and architecture books stacked everywhere. The highlight was the oculus, at the time a new word to me. (The Oxford English dictionary eloquently describes an oculus this way:1 a circular window. 2 the central boss of a volute. 3 an opening at the apex of a dome.) In Mr. Graves’ home, the oculus connects three floors, with a glass ceiling at top. (more…)

I know I’ve been down this road before.

It could be upstate New York, it could be Maine or Massachusetts. Or it could be Lambertville. It’s sort of parallel to a major road, and it’s slightly up on a hill. It’s safe enough so a kid or a dog can be safe, and the homes are comfortable though often in need of maintenance (darn that rotting wood). There’s a mix of different types of people here, and the neighbors mostly get along. In the summer they see each other on their porches or washing their cars, and they had a (more…)