After my opening for the Monmouth Museum’s “NJ Emerging Artist Series: Seth Ruggles Hiler – Portraits” on July 16th, in Lindcroft, NJ – see video, below – I hit the road, traveling north to Maine. Leaving behind my “20-Something” Portrait Painting Series (I am so over 20-somethings!), I am ready to avert my gaze to the landscape and engage in plein-air painting for the rest of the summer.
My first stop is Stonington, ME on Deer Isle. Stopping in Portland to visit artist Rachel Watson Sunday evening, and getting lost on the last leg up Monday morning, I arrived to meet artist and instructor, Jon Imber, by noon. I first met Jon in March during my residency at the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT. Jon was a visiting artist who lectured and gave studio crits with the over 35 VSC residents. I was very impressed with the work from his forty years of professional painting – he has focused on themes with which I often grapple: the figure, narrative, landscape, color, the fine line between representation and abstraction… (he was also a student of Philip Guston!)
Seth Ruggles Hiler is an artist and arts educator from Boonton, NJ. He received a BFA from Syracuse University in 2002 and an MFA from the New York Academy of Art in 2005. He is a portrait painter at heart, but landscape is his mistress. Grab your French easel and enjoy the ride!