Betts Gallery at The Belfast Framer will be hosting its kickoff exhibit of the 2012 season on June 1. Still Life is an exhibit of four artists: Stephanie Bartron-Miscione, Kerstin Engman, Kathleen Mack and Dina Petrillo. Their interpretation of the words “still lIfe” ranges from Images of beautiful eggs to a water faucet and much more. The work encompasses many individual unique styles.

Dina Petrillo

About Petrillo’s work poet Rick Benjamin writes, “Dina creates new pedagogies, new processes and forms that suit and accommodate her impulses and predilections as an artist-thinker. She consistently puts her hands in the earth – in the muck and the mire of animals, plants, minerals – in order to develop practices that are fully in touch and alive with the rest of the sentient world.”

Stephanie Bartron-Miscione

Bartron-Miscione says “I want my subjects to come alive with rich detail, layers of color that glow against contrasting values and textures, and more information than a single light source can provide”.

Kerstin Engman

Engman has been painting for the past decade, although her artistic focus for 25 years was as a sculptor. She has painted the Maine landscape and worked from what she defines as “the simplest of still lifes”. Her work is an expression of color and pattern in a balance that connects to daily routines and events.

Kathleen Mack

Mack, a self-taught artist, began her professional painting career in 1993. She works in oil and water media. Her primary interest is in the human form, alone and in relationship to other figures and surroundings. “The gesture is all important”.