ArtUp Hosts Artist Talk with Amy Masters

It may have been a brutal twenty degrees outside, but guests were nice and cozy inside as artist Amy Masters gave an inspired talk about her solo show Family Portraits on its closing weekend at ArtUp in Margaretville.

The talk started with an exercise led by Masters and ArtUp co-founder Patrice Lorenz asking attendees to give their thoughts and feelings about what ‘Family’ and ‘Community’ mean to them. Guests shared ideas that came first to mind including safety, nourishment and landscape, and expressed how important community is especially when you are far from family. 

This exercise laid the groundwork to step inside Masters’ approach for creating Family Portraits and opened up a better understanding of her inspiration for this show. Masters used her idea of community, “how we rely on each other and have created this magical space”, as a springboard into these paintings. 

The twelve thought-provoking oil paintings were created over the course of a year and were made possible by an award from the Delaware County Arts Grant. Masters incorporates architectural and shape concepts used previously in her work and introduces the figure in this highly cohesive show. She explains that these grants present the opportunity “to push yourself to explore and try things whether they are successful or not.” Judging by the reaction to her work, it is obvious this endeavor has been a huge success. 

The warm but muted palette of greens, blues and yellows are some of Masters’ favorite colors to work with and resonated with the crowd, imbuing emotions of melancholy and sadness while gazing the work. The palette really helps to create a strong relationship between the paintings, giving the series a story-like quality.

Human as well as animal figures grace her canvases. Some very prominent and some, like the animals in her piece Repose, seem to almost disappear in the tall grass and layers of the landscape. Masters discovered that when the figures became more literal and obvious, they made her cringe. She prefers the figures being more obscured and mysterious. This aspect gave rise to countless interpretations of the work by attendees, doing what art does best, allowing the viewer to have their own meaning and connection to the work.

Guests agreed how special the art community is up here in The Catskills and many expressed that it has become like a family to them. It is artist talks like these that give the community opportunities to bond and grow. It felt very special to share in this gathering and learn more about Masters’ gorgeous and engaging work on an icy winter afternoon. Everyone was left wanting more and encouraged Masters to not let this be the end of this series.

For the remainder of January, ArtUp will become studio space for prolific artist and ArtUp co-founder, Gary Mayer, who will be creating a mural of Margaretville for a location on Main Street funded by the Delaware County Re-Grant Program administered by Roxbury Arts Group. The public is welcome to stop by ArtUp to watch Mayer’s progress Friday through Sunday 12-4p. 

Keep up with the beautiful work of Amy Masters @amyrachelmasters on Instagram and follow ArtUp @artupmargaretville for upcoming events at the gallery.