You never know what neat new thing you’ll find when you walk through the Village of Webster. On Friday, the neat new thing I came across was a pop-up art gallery and sale in the former Heart to Heart Bridal storefront at the village’s four corners.
The gallery features the work of 91-year old Brighton artist Natalie Schwartz, whose large, colorful canvases fill the walls in the now-empty storefront. The show is being hosted by the owners of Mod4U, the little antique shop on North Ave., just around the corner from the sale.
The works of art themselves don’t often see the light of day; normally they’re all being stored in Natalie’s small living space at St. John’s senior living community. And that’s a shame, because they’re pretty awesome. Each one, it seems, reflects a different medium and subject matter, an eclectic mix that reflects Natalie’s diverse artistic tastes.
In a biography posted on the wall next to one of her paintings, Natalie wrote that she was “born … with a pencil in my hand.” Her love of all forms of artistic expression began when she was very young. As a child, she studied ballet and piano, took painting lessons at the Memorial Art Gallery, and as an adult discovered modern dance, which she continued even into her eighties.
For a while, she worked as a fashion illustrator for McCurdy and B. Forman Co., and eventually went back to RIT to complete a BFA and MFA in painting and printmaking.
Basically, Natalie Schwartz is a life-long learner whose enthusiasm for art is now on display for everyone to see.
For the next two days, anyway. The gallery will be open on Saturday and Sunday April 22 and 23 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day, before all of the unsold paintings get squeezed back into Natalie’s apartment. So make sure to check out the gallery today.
Here’s some of what you’ll see (click on the photo for an expanded view).
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(posted 4/21/2023)
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