The Subtle Light of Ellen Phelan
By FRANKLIN EINSPRUCH | March 11, 2011
http://www.nysun.com/arts/the-subtle-light-of-ellen-phelan/87260/
Courtesy Klemens Gasser & Tanja Gruner, Inc.
Ellen Phelan, White Cedars, 2003, oil on linen, 90 x 60 inches
Ellen Phelan is showing a suite of oil paintings at Gasser & Grunert that one might be tempted to call neo-Tonalist. Her soft, enveloping renderings of the Adirondack forests "capture a remarkable range of darkness and soft light, emotional high notes and whispers that together, evoke the experience of remembering," according to the gallery. "Efforts to verbally recall the details are immediately lost because we first encounter the paintings as sense impressions that are vague yet lasting." Landscapes and Still Lifes: A Selection is on display through March 19 at Klemens Gasser & Tanja Grunert, Inc., 524 West 19th Street, between 10th and 11th avenues, 212-488-6902, gassergrunert.net.


