Opening Friday 10/28
After pretty much nailing the Midwestern landscape with his deft use of oil pastels, Tom Maakestad of Marine on St. Croix has been buffing up his oil-painting techniques. With pastels he's captured the geometric intersections of undulating fields sliced by gravel roads and interrupted by groves and hedge rows. Aerial views and chalky tones turn his new pastels into almost abstract tapestries of light and shade. His new paintings are even more ambitious in scale, design and color. Note the complex interplay of saffron, pink and dusky sage that defines the fields, backstopped by trees picked out with plum, lavender and olive, in this 5-foot-tall oil painting, "Bean Field at Dusk." As a Minnesota native who grew up roaming the hills and valleys near Northfield, Maakestad infuses his landscapes with a deep appreciation of the myriad hues that animate familiar scenes. Attention campers: His new show also features 12 pastel drawings of William O'Brien State Park.
