Cedar Grove Studio is located at 271 Nevis Road, Tivoli, NY 12583.
Kevin David Palfreyman
Having loved the outdoors and worked and played in it all of my life and having always had a strong urge to create things, I feel I have found the perfect marriage of the two in landscape painting. From a study of English romantic poetry earlier in life I have found myself with a view of the natural world as a benevolent presence – a source of calm and a connection to the spiritual world. The act of painting is so engaging to me that, when I stand at my easel in a beautiful wood or a farmer’s field, distractions disappear and time passes unnoted - often until darkness intervenes. It’s a good day when I feel that the finished canvas carries that romantic, benevolent sense of the natural world.
Although I began with pastels, I have found that with oils I enjoy not only the intellectual aspect of creating a painting but even the tactile qualities of the medium – the way paint comes off of the brush and its ability to create silky softness or crispness of line. I’m attracted to scenes of warmth and tranquility and often edit out signs of the presence of man. For me, there is civilization in enough in real life.
I admire the work of many contemporary artists such as Joe McGurl, Jim Wilcox, and Dennis Doheny, but I have a special interest in the lost wisdom of the past masters. I am especially infuenced by the later painters of the Hudson River School, such as Sanford Gifford, John Frederick Kensett, and George Inness.
Although I paint many different kinds of landscapes and still lifes, lately I have been especially fascinated with skies and sunsets. In this series the land serves mainly as an anchor to the buoyancy and light of the sky. My greatest aspiration for all of my work is that it may remind the viewer of our place in the natural world and help to reconnect him with the sense of spirit that nature’s serenity can inspire.
Linda Leo Palfreyman
From John Nagy on our television as a child of the 50s to psychedelic art
through the 60s to my more recent studies with contemporary artists, my
first love has always been art. Through the years, I have benefitted from
several classes and workshops with a number of teachers including Tom
Shooter, Ken Westhaver, Fran Shapiro, David Curtis, Stapleton Kearns,
Keith Gunderson and John Macdonald. Several years of studying with Keith
Gunderson gave me the vision and the tools to paint in the Hudson River
School tradition and connected me with the lineage of the great painters
of the past. With this influence I try to capture the beauty of our
natural world with atmosphere and movement. My pallet is subtle and my
paintings are atmospheric and moody. My hope is that the viewer may be
drawn into my paintings and see the beauty of nature that I see. Being a
visual artist, being able to express that in paint, is what I do. All art
and teachings have had an influence on me and have always inspired. Some
of my Hudson River School favorites are Asher B. Duran and Jasper Cropsy
and the moody, tonalist styles of George Inness and Charles Warren Eaton.
My paintings have been shown in numerous local shows and galleries and are
held in many private collections.
Linda Palfreyman has enjoyed nature and art since childhood. Influenced by the palette of the Hudson River School painters, she enjoys painting the beauty of the Hudson Valley.
Whether she is painting in the studio in Tivoli, New York she shares with her husband Kevin or going out to roam the most beautiful places of the Hudson Valley and beyond, painting “en plein air” is truly her life long passion.
