Exhibit: Visions of Nature

Carol Perron Sommerfield will be featured in the inaugural solo exhibit at the new Ardsley Village Hall Gallery from April 27 through September 13, 2024. A free public opening reception will be held on Saturday, April 27 between 4 pm and 6 pm at Ardsley Village Hall, 507 Ashford Avenue, Ardsley, NY. The gallery is open Monday through Friday from 9 am to 4 pm. 

The exhibit, “Visions of Nature”, will showcase the artist’s landscape paintings over 12 years, featuring varied mediums and styles. The exhibit, which is both at the gallery and online, will benefit two local organizations that have helped to protect and improve natural resources within Ardsley. Twenty five percent of the artist’s proceeds from the exhibit will be donated to Bronx River/Sound Shore Audubon and the Westchester Parks Foundation. More information about the exhibit, as well as images of the paintings, can be found at www.frogsleapgallery.com.

Sommerfield paints in Ardsley during the fall, winter, and spring and then moves to Lake Muskoday in the Catskills to paint for the summer. She is a juried member of the New York Society of Women Artists and the National Association of Women Artists. She has won numerous awards and been granted artist and studio residencies during the past decade.  Her paintings are in collections throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. Sommerfield is also the Chair of the Ardsley Pollinator Pathway which adds to her mediums by allowing her to paint with plants.   This will be her eighth solo exhibit in a decade.

About Carol Sommerfield

My desire to paint comes from my deep appreciation, love, and feeling for a moment in time.   I took a 34 year break from art as I pursued a successful career as a corporate executive. I returned to painting in 2010 and began to realize that my paintings are also about transitions in my life. I see potential, a story, deeper meaning, and the surprise of discovering beauty and potential that we often miss on first glance.   I want viewers to feel the joy of connecting with the subject. To experience the dance of light and color, the emotion of fading or growing day light, the solitude and joy of being alone with a subject, the liveliness in a still life. I hope that the viewer, like me, wonders about the stories behind the images, the transition that is imminent. My ultimate desire is to have the viewer simply stop a moment to see and feel through the use of composition and color; to wonder about the moment.   I like to work in themes. I enjoy slowing down to explore a particular topic. Recently I have spent time on three themes: Lake Muskoday, Swamps, and Abandoned Places. In the 70’s I spent a great deal of time exploring still life in the “Grand Union Series”.   What are my paintings about? They are a metaphor for our challenges, fears and strength. Joy, color, mystery, unanswered questions, humor, solitary moments, sensuality and boldness. They are about a moment in time and the imminent change in both the subject and ourselves.