By
Lorna Ritz
Piece description from the artist
As a painter, I am used to a life of solitude, suggesting to people who live alone to choose some one thing they had always wanted to do but never prioritized, and become brilliant at it. No one came to visit, I did not go out, I could focus on moving these paintings further without interruption. Each night I would tell myself before sleep, “I think I am getting better.” That was why I still paint. Many more people continue to die of the virus. I brought both sadness and the beauty of the season into the painting. Then the sun would come up and the buds open a little more each day, giving me another chance to do what I do even better. It was the wide open fields catching sunlight, and the blue mountains that were steadfast in their
stubbornness ‘just to be,’ that cleared my head of a full day of painting during my sunset walks. The nonpolitical virus would teach us to become an even more compassionate people, kinder, more loving, uplifting each other, seeing the best in each other. I found friends online from Spain, Colombia, South Africa, France. etc.,and left food at neighbors’ who needed connection. But little acts of
kindness were not enough. Leading an inspired, driven life has kept me emotionally strong, especially when listening to a neighbor telling me she is afraid.
Lorna Ritz studied under the instruction of painter James Gahagan, (a student of Hans Hofmann), who was a very important teacher for her in the 60’s. She received an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1971, in both painting and sculpture, (welding steel, and casting in bronze and iron). She welded steel for 25 years, but never stopped painting, and only paints now. It is color and paint that structures the space that then finds the volumetric composition of her painting. BFA Pratt Institute MFA Cranbrook Academy Art.Taught @: R.I.School Design, Brown U,U MN, Dartmouth College VT Center,NY Studio School, UMASS, Residencies:C-Scape Dune Shacks,'P’Town, MA., International Program, UMASS, Cape Town,South Africa, Wurlitzer Foundation, NM.,Arcadia National Park, ME, Fundacíon Valparaíso,Spain; Roswell Museum Art Center, NM.,MacDowell Colony, NH, Lectures: Instituto de Belles Artes, (Medellin, Colombia), Honduras; American U, (D.C. + Italy);Humboldt U.,(CA);American U, (France) Divinity Center Yale U, Bowery Gallery,NYC, Hillyer Gallery, and Oresman Gallery at Brown Fine Arts Center @ Smith College,'Contemporary Art Museum" UMASS. ,Hood Museum, Dartmouth College, Fine Arts Center P’Town, MA. Group exhibitions:"Anita Shapolsky Gallery, NYC, The Painting Center," NYC Edward Hopper Museum, NY, Hannah Bacol Busch Gallery,Texas, Lamont Gallery, Phillips Exeter Academy, NH. solo shows: Contemporary Art Museum UMASS,,State House,Boston, Aidron Duckworth Art Museum, NH.,French Cultural Center, Boston, Grants: Artists' Fellowship, Berkshire Taconic Foundation, Haven Foundation,ME, George Sugarman Grant, Puffin Foundation, NJ, Kittredge Grant, Harvard U., Pollock-Krasner Grants, Esther & Adolph Gottlieb Individual Grant, Ludwig Vogelstein, Blanche Colman Grant Public Collections: U Michigan Museum Contemporary Art, Hale and Dorr Law Firm, Bank of Boston, Johnson &Johnson, (N.J.), Anderson Museum Contemporary Art, (N.M.), Burnham Institute, (CA.), Veridex, (NJ),Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Childrens' Hospital, Nataxix Global Asset, Cedars Sinai Hospital LA,Audax Group, United Health Group Corporate Minnesota, McLean Hospital @ Harvard Medical School, Ipsen Cambridge, MA.
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