Two solo shows open at SUNY Orange galleries

MIDDLETOWN — Two solo shows have opened at Orange Hall Galleries at SUNY Orange with receptions for both artists to take place Sunday, July 31 from 1:30 to 4 p.m. In Orange Hall Gallery, artist Walter Bill is exhibiting works in his show called “Watercolors of Times to Remember.” The paintings often combine real scenes with several embellishments that create interest and atmosphere. Several of the works depict Orange County buildings while many others are remembrances of his native New Jersey where he lived most of his life. The 64 works include street scenes, Victorian homes, churches, old farms, railroad stations and a boxcar-turned-house, plus a variety of other subjects. Bill is a signature member of the North East Watercolor Society and a member of the Middletown Art Group. In addition, he is a lifetime member of the Garden State Watercolor Society and the American Artist Professional League in New Jersey. His works have brought him 130 awards and 25 best of shows. His paintings have also been reproduced in books and calendars. In Orange Hall Gallery Loft, Robert Harry Score will have his 25 plus drawings displayed in the exhibit called “Mending Wall,” a pen and ink reflection of dedication and commitment, as characterized by Orange County’s agriculture community. For 34 years, Score has been drawing images “of barns, machinery, fields, and people now forgotten and buried under the pavement of progress.” His favorite medium is ink-pen & ink; but, he prefers to call it the “medium of memories.” Many of the barns he has drawn in ink are gone as well as the fields around them. Much of the machinery is scrapped or hidden away. With this exhibit comes not only the artist’s renditions but his feelings toward an era in Orange County heritage and history-what he terms the “Golden Age of the Family Farm.” Score grew up in the Town of Montgomery on one of those “family farms” which he describes as a “modest tract of magically fertile fields and meadows which could nurture anything that touched the soil...and that land nurtured me as well.” Both exhibits will be on view through Sept. 15. Call 341-4891 for exhibit hours and additional information.