Paintings by Rollande Rousselle and Eileen Belanger
April, 2016
The Friends of the Amherst Town Library welcomes both Rollande Rousselle and Eileen Belanger to exhibit their oil and acrylic paintings on the main floor of the library for the month of April. Stop in and feel the beauty both of these painters capture into their paintings.
Eileen Belanger resides in New Boston, New Hampshire in a 1908 cider mill which houses her living space, studio, and gallery. The mill is still operational every Columbus weekend as a fundraiser for local charities. She teaches at the Cider Mill Gallery, Creative Ventures Gallery in Amherst and at E.W. Poore’s in Manchester. Eileen has gained increasing recognition for her original, detailed paintings and murals of New England scenes inspired by her passion for nature and her surroundings. Her acrylic and oil paintings may include scenes from her life in New Hampshire or a visit to Cape Cod, the Islands or abroad. Other times it is just the subject matter that stirs her creativity. Eileen is fascinated by dramatic contrasts between light and shadow and attempts to achieve a welcoming depth and clarity to her compositions. Her murals are finely detailed and she works closely with her clients to interpret their ideas in breathtaking panoramas. Eileen has painted murals throughout the East Coast in private, public and corporate venues. She has also become widely known for her animal and house portraits. Eileen has won numerous awards at New England art shows and is a member of the New Hampshire Plein Air Association. Painting on location is one of the joys of being an artist.
Rollande Rousselle is another local artist whose passion is spending most of her time learning, looking, studying, hearing, admiring nature and then trying to put as much as she can on canvas. Painting is more important to her than bread. After Rollande successfully started growing flowers in her garden, she realized what she wanted to share with people, “I want them to see beauty all year long”. She frequently returns to the lady slippers because they are natures’s gift to us. “When people stand in front of my 'Fields of Ladies' painting and see the lady slippers, it often sends them back to a simpler more pleasant time. I was inspired to start painting ladies slippers because I love the beautiful greeting of these orchids when I take my much loved walks in the woods.” Her greatest inspirations have been from the woods in the North East area. Using oil paints and the palette knife allows Rollande the spontaneity of happy accident. “It is amazing to see a square centimeter of the painting and be able to identify more than 10 colors in the background or the floor of the forest.” She makes some of her own tools with handles as well as other things like snipped aluminum and the head of a nail to paint with. “I usually prefer to work on a board because I am afraid to get overzealous and rip a canvas with a palette knife.” Standing in total admiration in the Museum of fine Arts a few years back in front of Monet’s and Vincent’s painting has left Rollande desiring more and more to learn how to go in the direction of impressionistic painting and using no brushes has facilitated this in leaps and bound.
Eileen Belanger resides in New Boston, New Hampshire in a 1908 cider mill which houses her living space, studio, and gallery. The mill is still operational every Columbus weekend as a fundraiser for local charities. She teaches at the Cider Mill Gallery, Creative Ventures Gallery in Amherst and at E.W. Poore’s in Manchester. Eileen has gained increasing recognition for her original, detailed paintings and murals of New England scenes inspired by her passion for nature and her surroundings. Her acrylic and oil paintings may include scenes from her life in New Hampshire or a visit to Cape Cod, the Islands or abroad. Other times it is just the subject matter that stirs her creativity. Eileen is fascinated by dramatic contrasts between light and shadow and attempts to achieve a welcoming depth and clarity to her compositions. Her murals are finely detailed and she works closely with her clients to interpret their ideas in breathtaking panoramas. Eileen has painted murals throughout the East Coast in private, public and corporate venues. She has also become widely known for her animal and house portraits. Eileen has won numerous awards at New England art shows and is a member of the New Hampshire Plein Air Association. Painting on location is one of the joys of being an artist.
Rollande Rousselle is another local artist whose passion is spending most of her time learning, looking, studying, hearing, admiring nature and then trying to put as much as she can on canvas. Painting is more important to her than bread. After Rollande successfully started growing flowers in her garden, she realized what she wanted to share with people, “I want them to see beauty all year long”. She frequently returns to the lady slippers because they are natures’s gift to us. “When people stand in front of my 'Fields of Ladies' painting and see the lady slippers, it often sends them back to a simpler more pleasant time. I was inspired to start painting ladies slippers because I love the beautiful greeting of these orchids when I take my much loved walks in the woods.” Her greatest inspirations have been from the woods in the North East area. Using oil paints and the palette knife allows Rollande the spontaneity of happy accident. “It is amazing to see a square centimeter of the painting and be able to identify more than 10 colors in the background or the floor of the forest.” She makes some of her own tools with handles as well as other things like snipped aluminum and the head of a nail to paint with. “I usually prefer to work on a board because I am afraid to get overzealous and rip a canvas with a palette knife.” Standing in total admiration in the Museum of fine Arts a few years back in front of Monet’s and Vincent’s painting has left Rollande desiring more and more to learn how to go in the direction of impressionistic painting and using no brushes has facilitated this in leaps and bound.
This information provided by the library: http://www.amherstlibrary.org/about/art-on-display
