Dawn Stafford - 2002 Show

"The Timmel Collection's" July Exhibition "Dawn Stafford 2002" will be new oil paintings by Saugatuck resident impressionist artist Dawn Stafford. Opening Saturday, June 29, Dawn's paintings will be featured for the entire month of July. Her work will be represented by 22 new canvases of Landscapes, still-lives and figures. The "Blue Torso" series on paper will be available in its entirety, as well as new Limited Edition Prints and assorted gift cards.

"Much of my energy this Spring" Stafford explains, "went into the launching of prints and cards, although I was able to bring onto canvas two paintings that have been in my mind's eye for several years ... the dogwoods of Allegan Woods displayed themselves with their usual sense of other-worldliness this season, so I escaped among them for a few days and worked to bring some facet of their splendor onto the canvas. A truly humbling experience ... the other painting was of the old-Ox-Bow Inn which I plan to donate to the Ox-Bow Summer Benefit Auction. I found there was no vantage point from which I could really see the Inn all at once. The old cedars and sassafras trees surround and protect it. In the painting it seems to emerge from the woodland and reflects the warm glow of the sun hanging low over the lagoon."

Dawn (Center) with best Friends
At her June 29, 2002 Opening Reception

Dawn wtih Jean and Dave Stafford
and Saugatuck Art Patron JeanTayerle

This will be Stafford's 5th Annual Show at The Gallery. She is originally from New York and receivd her Bachelors of Fine Arts in Painting and Ceramics from the Swain School of Design in Massachusetts. In 1992, following her graduation, she moved to Saugatuck where she has continued to develop as a painter.

She began teaching Painting and Drawing in 1999 through the "Art on the Meadow" community program offered at Ox-Bow Summer School of the Arts (in Saugatuck) which is run by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Stafford's 2002 classes are scheduled between July 8th to the 18th. Phone 616 857 5811 for details. In the winter months she teaches workshops out of The Timmel Collection Gallery where she is Artist-in-residence and Gallery Director November through April every season.

She has worked from a private studio all ten years of her residency in Michigan. She is an accomplished colorist whose impressionistic/expressionistic paintings fall within the framework of the classical genres of landscape, still-life and figure. Her wish is to extend a sense of balance and harmony to humanity through her paintings. She says:

Stafford's paintings are also available for viewing at "Everyday People Cafe" in downtown Douglas owned by Margaret and Matt Balmer (mother and son). The collectively own nine original works, one of which "Blue Pears on Green" is featured in the July/August 2002 issue of "Better Homes and Gardens - Special Interest Issue." This exceptional work is also available in a Limited Edition Print at The Timmel Collection Gallery.

The Exhibition will open Saturday, June 29 with a speical reception from 5 - 8 PM. The daily Gallery hours seven days a week are 10 AM - 5 PM. For further information, contact The Gallery at (616) 857-7274 or [email protected]. All of Dawn's recent work is available for previewing at thetimmelcollection.com