Pastel Demonstration: Tomorrow Copley Society of Boston

On the Cusp Jeanne Rosier Smith (Image Detail)

The Copley Society of Art Gallery on Newbury Street is one of my favorite Back Bay Galleries. It offers a peaceful respite from the craziness that can envelop that section of Newbury Street, especially in the summer tourist season. There are two main galleries, as well as the somewhat secret "red room", which right now is hosting Nancy Colella’s summer solo exhibition Beach Peeks. (How I wish to Co|So, as it's affectionately called, would install a bench or a couple of seats to settle into while you admire the art!)

In reality, Co|So is more than just a gallery. It's actually the oldest (1879!) non-profit art association in the United States. Today, it has more than 500 artist members, from students to nationally-recognized artists, representing every just about every style of art, from traditional and academic realists to contemporary and abstract painters, photographers, and sculptors.

Tomorrow is a great time to get acquainted or reacquainted with the Copley Society of Art. From 1 to 3 p.m., Artist Jeanne Rosier Smith will give a demonstration on how to paint a wave in pastel. (Her pastel On the Cusp, shown above, won fourth place in in the Co|So's Summer Members' Show: New England Perceived, juried by Fuller Craft Museum Director Jonathan L. Fairbanks.) To see more of her work, click here.

The Copley Society
158 Newbury Street
Boston, MA 02116
copleysociety.org

Stop, Look, and Above All, Linger



Boston Public Library Courtyard Copyright: Lynn Schweikart

 Frank Bruni's column in this morning's New York Times entitled Time, Distance and Clarity, had a poignant message: too often we rush about our busy day without really taking in or appreciating our surroundings.

"I’m talking about subtle, incidental blessings that are strangely invisible to us. My friend N. realized that there was a towering, flowering Schefflera plant in front of her childhood home in California only after she’d moved to New York and begun coveting one in a Manhattan store, which wanted $500 for it," says Bruni.

Ah, yes, the blessings that greet us every day, which we are often too preoccupied to acknowledge. Bruni's column was inspired by his recent trip to Rome, a city where he'd lived and worked for a number of years, and was visiting again on a brief vacation.

"Above Rome’s pale yellow and dusky orange buildings, the sky somehow looks bluer than it does almost anywhere else," Bruni muses, "Did I take proper note of that when I saw it all the time? When it was the canopy over my waking, my working and the all-consuming, all-distracting tedium of daily life?"

I had similar feelings as I wandered around Boston last year, doing the research for Peaceful Places Boston. Was this stretch of Beacon Hill always so beautiful? Had I ever really paused to sit in the in the courtyard of the Boston Public Library and listen to the fountain? Why had I never taken the time to indulge my urge to wander along the Southwest Corridor Park and admire the South End's garden squares?

Especially in this season, when there is too much to do, and too little time to do it, it's good for the soul to rest for a moment and really notice.

"My companion halted in his tracks one afternoon to point out the heart-tugging perfection of the square we were in," writes Bruni. "It was the Piazza di Sant’Ignazio, one long side of which is traced by elaborately curved 18th-century buildings that evoke a rococo chest of drawers. I’d zoomed through it repeatedly years ago. And never once lingered. On this occasion I did. And then, my lesson learned, I stopped by again the next morning, before I headed to the airport and lost the precious chance."

Don't miss your precious chances: watch the sunset over the Charles River. Listen to the joyful sounds of children skating on the Frog Pond. Stop and smell the rich sea air near the waterfront. You'll come away restored and refreshed, with a deeper appreciation of the beauty that surrounds us every day.