Works inspired by region's beauty on display at Westmont arts center

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – A love of the natural beauty of Pennsylvania is captured in this dual showcase.

“Embracing Pennsylvania,” an exhibition of plein air landscapes and turned hardwood bowls by Sarah Gayle Silwones and Jonathan Silwones, is on display through July 26 in the Goldhaber-Fend Fine Arts Center Gallery at the Community Arts Center of Cambria County, 1217 Menoher Blvd., Westmont.

The Ferndale couple moved to the area two years ago from the Pacific Northwest based solely on the aesthetics of the region.

“We’ve really fallen in love with Pennsylvania, and the landscape is one of the things that drew us here. We’ve been discovering the magic of the place, and it’s amazing,” Sarah Gayle Silwones said. “As we’ve been discovering Pennsylvania and the beauty of what is here, it’s inspired my art through the visualness of it. Jonathan discovered that the hardwoods here are such a prolific kind of resource that his woodturning has taken an amazing path.”

She said exhibiting at the arts center is an opportunity to show the link between the art forms.

“If I was going to do a show about plein air art, it would be such a natural thing to want to have his bowls, because they seem to be connected, and that’s because they come from the same place,” Sarah Gayle Silwones said. “It’s pure Pennsylvania.”

The show marks the first time the couple is exhibiting together.

“We both had galleries in the past and it has been a long time since we’ve displayed work, so it has been fun to pull it all out and start remembering everything you do,” Jonathan Silwones said.

The show features 64 paintings by Sarah Gayle Silwones, with a majority being plein air pieces of landscapes, animals and seasonal scenes.

“As a plein air artist, I pack everything up in a case, I hike somewhere, set up my easel and paint the scene,” she said. “You have a really short window of time to do it, so many of the pieces are done in about two hours. Your effort is to try and capture the light and the mood of the moment where you are, as opposed to a more finished work that takes place in a studio.”

She said the plein air works on display were painted predominantly in Cambria County.

“I generally go places and paint for the day, or when possible, find places I can go for a week or longer and really work in a location,” she said.

She said color and light are what inspires her work.

“Color is my thing, and I love what it does in light,” she said. “It’s so amazing. Plein air gives you that opportunity to see things differently. The light you see, either in a photograph or inside a room, is very subdued. The light outside creates all kinds of nuances that you can’t capture with a camera, so the only way to capture it is to stand in front of it and really study the place where you are and look for those little magic things.”

Jonathan Silwones said he’s been turning wood for many years and specializes in bowls and bowl forms.

“I do a process called twice-turned bowls, so you rough the wood out into a shape and you look at what you have and what it might be.

“It’s very thick and it dries for sometimes up to a year in that shape,” he said. “That allows it to really stabilize humidity and temperature.

“I’ll put it back in the lathe to finish the pieces out so they wouldn’t warp.”

The show features 55 pieces that include functional bowls, plates, platters and enclosed forms.

“The predominant species of wood are cherry, oak, walnut, black walnut, locust and catalpa,” Jonathan Silwones said. “In the Pacific Northwest, hardwoods are hard to find and you really need to work to get good wood, but here, it’s everywhere, and that’s incredible.”

He said ideas for the pieces come to him as he’s working with the wood.

“It’s by form and what would be a pleasing form and its use,” Jonathan Silwones said. “It’s about what you can do to orient the piece best for the grain and what you can do to give it a pleasing curve.”

Sarah Gayle Silwones said viewers will see Pennsylvania differently.

“When you live in a place, it’s easy to disregard the beauty of it,” she said. “That lilac tree in somebody’s yard is actually beautiful all on its own from a different perspective, or that pile of firewood could yield these unbelievably beautiful bowls. We want people to see the resources that are here, but in a different light.”

Angela R. Godin, executive director of the arts center, said the show offers diversity.

“With Sarah Gayle, you go from still life to her plein air pieces with its outdoor details and moments within Pennsylvania, and then you have the actual tactile feel of Jonathan’s work because it’s hands-on to make the pieces,” she said. “It’s a cool kind of marriage between the fact that you have a variety in paintings and you have these turned hardwood pieces.”

Godin said those attending the show will see the time that went into the works.

“Each part of these mediums is incredibly time-consuming and not an instant one-and-done,” she said. “You have to focus, go back and make sure you’re catching the light because it changes. With the wood, going with or against the grain can make it two different things.

“Being able to see the intricacies and the time is a really beautiful thing and not just the attractiveness of the pieces themselves.”

A video tour of the works of art is available on the arts center’s YouTube and Facebook pages.

There is no admission fee.

Gallery hours are from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays.

For more information, call 814-255-6515 or visit www.caccc.org.