New horizons

"Highway at Dusk" by Roy Perkinson

As a teacher, I am charged with expanding my students' horizons. I can do this not only through the lessons we cover in the classroom, but also by connecting the students to other professionals in my field who can bring a different voice to the same subject matter I've been covering all semester.

This morning, my students from Framingham State University had the good fortune to meet Roy Perkinson, a painter who works from his studio at the Bancroft Building in Framingham, Massachusetts. Roy allowed us to visit his working space, so we could get a direct glimpse of his creative environment. He also gave us an informative tour of "Sight Lines," the three-person show he has curated at Fountain Street Fine Art, a spacious art gallery also located in the Bancroft Building. Roy's own paintings of cityscapes, roadways and other landscape views are on display in this show, along with artworks by two of his long-time friends, Andrew Haines and Greg Heins, who are also inspired by landscape. Haines paints Boston and its environs from unexpected angles and vantage points, such as a distant street spied between two foreground skyscrapers, with ladder-like crosswalks zigzagging across the gap. Heins, meanwhile, photographs views of street scenes in and around Paris.

It was a joy for me to watch Roy interact with my students, who are just beginning to explore with paint, and hear him tell them about the various artistic decisions he made in each of his artworks. He explained how one painting in particular had been inspired by a rear-view mirror vision that shocked him with its intense color and light as he was driving along what had initially seemed like a barren stretch of road. We, his audience, smiled as he described the experience of having to pull off the road and photograph the scene, knowing that some day, a painting (or two) would result. ("Highway at Dusk" is shown above.)

The visit with Roy was a treat for my class and for me. The artist ended our tour with a reminder that we are always discovering who we are, no matter what our age or stage in life, and to remember to enjoy that process of discovery as it unfolds.

If you are near Framingham and have a chance to visit Fountain Street Fine Art and see Roy and his colleagues' marvelous show, I highly recommend a visit! Even better: the three artists will present a public talk on Sunday, April 14, from 2 to 3 PM. The exhibit is on view until April 21.

More on our visit on the gallery's Facebook page, here.

I chat with Roy about the show, while several of my students take notes on their written assignment as part of our visit.
Photo by Marie Craig, gallery co-director, Fountain Street Fine Art.