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<About Us
North Main Gallery was founded over ten
years ago as ARTS220 by Ruth Sauer as an outgrowth
of her love of art and her experience and training as an art
teacher. Over the years, the need for a fine art gallery for
local and regional artists has grown and in 2006 Ruth bought
and renovated an unused and historic building in the heart
of Salem, New York in southern Washington County, on the border
of Vermont and about 45 minutes east of Saratoga Springs.
Teaching Schedule
The artist/instructors give lessons to students 6 years
old through adults. A variety of two- and three-dimensional materials
are made available. The studio’s approach to making art emphasizes
student individuality, in-depth involvement and exploration. Guest artists
also may provide instruction on specific projects.
Classes are available by individual arrangement and fees
vary. Contact us for more information.
Gallery Associates
STUDIO RUTH is the working studio of artists Ruth Sauer,
Caroline Hooke, and David O’Keefe who paint on canvas and paper,
make small pastels, collages, and constructions, create monoprints, and
form figurative soft sculptures. The artists welcome visitors and enjoy
discussing the work.
RUTH BARNGROVE SAUER
Ruth's richly-colored paintings on canvas and on paper
are predominantly abstract in approach, their themes based on her memories
of specific places, ones that she visited as well as those imagined. She
says: "These I describe as Place Memories -- with shapes, colors,
textures forming each work, reflecting and interpreting strong interactions
with, and connections to, each remembered place.
A graduate of Connecticut College (B.A., Studio Art),
Ruth trained as a teacher at Shady Hill School, Cambridge (MA). Further
study included the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere, Art Students League,
Boston Museum School, New School, and Pratt Institute. Exhibitions include
Artists Space (NYC ); in Glens Falls (NY), the ArtWorks Gallery 21, D'Ella
Showroom, Lower Adirondack Regional Arts Council (LARAC), and North Country
Arts Center (NCAC)/Crandall Library; Gallery One (Greenwich, NY); Old
Forge Arts Center (Old Forge, NY); and in Manchester (VT), the Equinox
Hotel Area Artists, and Southern Vermont Arts Center (SVAC).
Currently, Ruth paints and teaches at ARTS 220--the new
art gallery/ studio she founded this year on Main Street, Salem (NY).
Other local teaching projects include Paula Krieg's NYSCA-funded Book
Arts at the Salem Bancroft Library, and the Salem Central School's Continuing
Education classes.
CAROLINE HOOKE
The poetry of myth and nature suffuses Caroline's collages,
constructions, and mixed-media work. She began making constructions of
found objects while still a child near the California beaches, and after
exploring other mediums in formal training at Parsons School of Art (NYC)
and at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, she returned to and continues to
work in the evocative art constructions she first loved.
Caroline's work, in three dimensions as well as in painting
and drawing, integrates the strength and beauty of ancient early art forms
with her strong memory of the Southwest's colors, textures, and moods.
In her work, as she strives to portray a sense of the natural world that
transcends time and captures the essence of humankind's harmonious co-existence
with nature.
She says: "I have used stories, myths, masks, and
layers of textures and materials to express inner thoughts, feelings,
and memories. Reconnecting with our ancient past can perhaps help us understand
ourselves, others, and our natural world around us."
Selected current professional affiliations include ARTS
220 (Salem, NY), as Associate; Lower Adirondack Regional Arts Council
(LARAC), and the Crandall Library Folk Arts Project (Glens Falls, NY);
Southern Vermont Arts Center (Manchester, VT); and Valley Artisans Market
(Cambridge, NY). Caroline has received numerous awards for her work, from,
for example, the Vermont Council on the Arts, the Hyde Museum, the Left
Bank Gallery, and Equinox Hotel Area Artists Exhibition (Manchester, VT).
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