May 23, 2017 - ChaddsFordLive.com

Art Watch: Weekend with wine and art

Beech-Mason — Jill Beech and Helen Mason at Oxford Arts Alliance

After last weekend’s whirlwind art adventure on The Chester County Studio Tour, this week offers some calmer, interesting, compelling discussions about creating and selling art here in Chester County. After looking at so much art all weekend, now is a great week to reflect on it all. Share in captivating art discussions Wednesday and Thursday, and enjoy a delicious mixture of wine and art at two local wineries over the weekend.

Wednesday, May 24 from 6 to 8 p.m. the Oxford Arts Alliance invites the public to an art discussion with featured gallery artists Helen Mason and Jill Beech – two of the most interesting sculptural artists in our area. Both artists are well-known and have shown in museums and important juried art shows and galleries along the east coast.

Helen Mason works with black tire rubber to create fascinating organic constructions full of undulating ripples of rubber ribbons, shredded rubber and rubberized strings. Her work is a mixture of spontaneity and careful construction, both in her wall pieces as well as her standing sculpture and jewelry. Jill Beech’s work, in contrast to Helen’s, is all mostly white sculptural forms.

Jill’s large punctured vessels of white porcelain resemble earthly corals – absolutely mesmerizing pieces that require hundreds of hours of work, and are both cool and sensual at the same time. Her new series of encaustic and cloth bound “refugees” hang alongside one another at the entry wall to the Oxford Arts Alliance’s show. Bound, muted, side by side, this series is both compelling and disturbing as they reflect Jill’s response to the refugee crisis throughout our world at this time. The idea of these bound refugees is very strong, and I admire the fact that Jill makes each one very individual, slightly different sizes and mass, with slightly different materials, as she honors each as individuals, not just collectively. Both of these incredible artists will share their unique histories and points of view with the public this Wednesday night, with accompanied food and refreshments, at the Oxford Arts Alliance at 38 South Third Street in Oxford PA.

This Thursday oil painter David Oleski will have an artist discussion at his newest gallery show, Church Street Gallery in West Chester, from 7 to 9 p.m. David is a very well known artist in this area, as well as in art shows throughout the country. He is most famous for his large canvas, cool palette still life portraits of fruit. For the Church Street Gallery show David created new original works that include some more colorful fruit and vegetables, set against a buttery background of methodically dappled brushwork.

David Oleski has many collectors, and you can understand why when you see his work face to face. The colors are soothing and the fruits are clean and fresh, creating an overall impression of coolness and light. They make you want to have a room filled with them! Meet the artist this Thursday hear him discuss his work, methodology and creative inspiration in what is sure to be a packed room full of interested artists and art collectors.

Also Thursday May 25 from 6:30 to 9 p.m. is an important opening launch party event for “My Masterpiece” who invites the public to their very first art show and reception at The Saturday Club, 117 West Wayne Avenue in Wayne Pennsylvania. My Masterpiece is two women entrepreneurs who have started an art promotion business, as agents for artists, connecting the artists with art buyers in the real estate and business world.

My Masterpiece is a terrific idea for a business! Many artists are brilliant at making art, but few are equally good at selling and promoting their work. Most galleries act as agents for their artists, but there are many artists and very few galleries, so having an agent relationship is a wonderful gift for an artist who can now spend their time on what they do best, instead of what they do the worst.

Vatsala Syed and Gloria Dichter are the two brave women who have started My Masterpiece. Their aim is to connect artists with clients looking to commission a piece of original artwork or purchase a piece of existing work from their selected artists. Currently My Masterpiece is representing seven artists, who will be showing their art at the Thursday evening reception. They plan to build their artist list and limit it to twenty. If you are an artist who would like to hear more about this, or a art lover who needs to commission a particular piece, you should check out this My Masterpiece Art Show and reception this Thursday.

At Wilson Vineyard Gallery at Wayvine Winery and Vineyard at 4374 Forge Road in Nottingham, you can enjoy a fun art show of nine women artists “Trashy Women” who have created delightful art from trash. Also, this Wednesday, May 24 from 6 to 8 p.m. you are invited to sip wine while learning to use watercolors. The beautiful vineyard and delicious wine should be a great inspiration to you even if you have never painted before.

Robin Flynn and Vidya Shyamsundar at Galer Estate Winery

At Galer Estate Winery, at 700 Folly Hill Road in Kennett Square, glass artist Robin Flynn will have a pop up art show and sale of her artwork on Saturday, and artist Vidya Shyamsundar will be showing her gorgeous patterned paintings on Sunday, both shows are from 2 to 6 p.m. Come and enjoy the colorful, original artworks by these two unique artists, while sipping award winning wine, listening to live music, and then staying to glimpse some of the Longwood fireworks from the winery deck.

About Lele Galer

Lele Galer is an artist who has chaired numerous art shows, taught art history and studio art, public art and has chaired, written and taught the Art in Action Art Appreciation series for the UCFD schools for the past 12 years. She worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and wrote for the Associated Press in Rome. She has been dedicated to Art History and art education for most of her adult life. Lele and her husband Brad own Galer Estate Winery in Kennett Square.

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Murphy: ‘I’m not signing it’

CF-Town-Hall — Residents listen to township engineer Mike Schneider regarding traffic counts at Ridge Road and Route 202.

Chadds Ford Township Supervisors’ Chairman Frank Murphy continues to hold fast to a position he took months ago. He won’t sign off on highway improvements proposed by the Pettinaro Co. as part of a commercial development in Concord Township.

“I’m not signing it,” Murphy told residents who attended an informational meeting Monday night.

At issue is a commercial development — the Shops at Ridge Road — approved by Concord Township supervisors in 2008 and re-affirmed in 2014 for the 25-plus acre lot at Route 202 and Ridge Road. A condition of the approval — Condition 19 on Concord’s resolution — is that Chadds Ford Township agrees in writing to proposed highway improvements on Ridge Road, one of the borders between the two townships.

Those proposed improvements for the development include using Ridge Road for the main entrance to the property and for widening Ridge from its current two lanes to six for a stretch of less than a quarter of a mile. That widening would be from the intersection with Route 202 west to the end of the property.

The landscape plan for The Shops at Ridge Road.

Earlier this year, Chadds Ford supervisors authorized a traffic count for intersections along Route 202 from Route 1 south to Smithbridge Road and along Ridge from 202 to Ring Road. During the May 22 standing room only meeting, township engineer Mike Schneider gave a preliminary report of that count.

Schneider said the idea was to compare current traffic flow with the flow when Pettinaro last studied the traffic in 2014. Part of the preliminary analysis included projecting future traffic to the year 2019. The current numbers include traffic generated by the Wegmans’ development, and the projections include more traffic generated by the proposed Royal Farms convenience store and the relocation of the Concordville Subaru dealership.

He said the numbers were close, but that his rough calculations indicate 10 percent more traffic than Pettinaro’s last count. One of the differences between the two counts, he said, was that Pettinaro did its traffic counts in the summer, while the Chadds Ford count was done during the school year. Among other numbers was a specific count at 202 and Ridge. On April 22, between 5 and 6 p.m. the “p.m. peak hours,” 4,381 vehicles used the intersection of Route 202 and Ridge Road.

Schneider said he would have a fuller analysis ready for the supervisors’ workshop next week, Wednesday, May 31.

Murphy opened the meeting by saying there were things that he couldn’t discuss because of pending and possible future litigation over the matter. He did say, however, that the only thing stopping Pettinaro right now is Chadds Ford and his refusal to sign off on the changes.

Carolyn Daniels, a resident of the Ridings, has been instrumental in forming a group Chadds Ford Neighbors Against More Traffic on Route 202. She said, “Condition 19 is the glue that’s keeping us together.”

Daniels is also a director of the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District and said in response to one question that the district’s Transportation Department is aware of the situation and that it’s director, Marie Wickersham, “is concerned.”

The pending litigation Murphy referenced was reported here.

Pettinaro filed a suit on May 10 against Concord because it did not remove the condition that requires Chadds Ford’s approval. Attorney John Jaros, representing Pettinaro, asked Concord in March to remove that condition. When Concord’s Council voted no, Jaros said he would likely have to ask the court to resolve the matter.

Jaros has argued that the condition should be removed or that the court should rule that Chadds Ford has tacitly accepted the improvements by acknowledging other matters — including stormwater management and traffic light agreements and that Chadds Ford was a co-applicant/co-permittee for the PennDOT Highway Occupancy Permit signed on Sept. 23, 2013.

About Rich Schwartzman

Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.