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2006 Loan Exhibit

 

 

The 2006 Weston Antiques Show was honored to present "Lost Vermont Images," a loan exhibit of fifty paintings, woodcuts, serigraphs, and etchings

from twenty-five Vermont artists of the early 1900s.

 

 

Rockwell Kent's iconic painting

of deer at Equinox Mountain

Each picture in this exhibit was an antique in its own right and the overall collection celebrated Vermont's heritage better than words ever could. This astonishing array of works spoke to people of all ages - those who like art, appreciate antiques, respect history, or simply feel a special tie to Vermont.  From the permanent collection of the Vermont Country Store, many of these works had never been seen by the public.

 

 

Twenty-five years ago, two friends, one a business owner and the other an antiques appraiser, were at an auction lamenting the sale of local paintings to people from everywhere but Vermont.  They looked at each other and said, �We should have bought that picture and kept it here." 

 

Lyman Orton, Proprietor of the Vermont Country Store, has lived and worked in Vermont all his life.  Barbara Trask Melhado, senior member of American Society of Appraisers and Southern Vermont Art Center Trustee, spent summers in the state as a child and has made Vermont her home since 1964. 

 

Orton and Melhado pursued works by artists who lived and worked in Vermont between 1920 and 1970.  They spent early mornings at openings of antiques shows, trolling through dealer shops and tag sales, scouting auctions, and following leads. The hunt took them all over the state, New England, and eventually the metropolitan markets of New York and Boston.

 

The Vermont Country Store formed a permanent collection to preserve these images of a way of life that was Vermont and, in many cases, is no more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paul Sample�s oil of a then common

county fair event, the trotting races

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gene Pelham's reflective view

of Manchester Center Mill Pond

 

 

"These pictures show our love for life here.  We hope that all who visit the exhibit and the Weston Antiques Show will experience the joy of our surroundings.  We are glad to share it with you." - L. Orton and B. Melhado

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Aldro Hibbard's portrayal of  the

sugar house, a Vermont landmark

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kyra Markham's commentary on encroaching mechanization

The pictures run the gamut from etchings to woodcuts to watercolors to oils. The subjects are people and places ranging from Stowe to Springfield, Hartland to Manchester, and Lyndonville to Pownal.

 

Some artists were professional illustrators during this, the heyday of the Saturday Evening Post, Colliers, and the Ladies Home Journal.  A number of these illustrators found themselves in Vermont, where they produced paintings with the local populace and scenery as their theme.

 

Others were in the WPA Federal Artists Project during the 1930's. Hired to paint murals in post offices and other public buildings, most were formally trained and portrayed rural life and the rural worker. All conveyed that period�s sense of social commentary and observation.

 

The exhibit is supported in part by the Vermont Humanities Council, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and IBM.

 

Artists in Exhibit

Gayleen Aiken Leslie Crawford Wallace Fahnestock Beatrice Jackson Gene Pelham
Walton Blodgett Bernadine Custer A.T. Hibbard Rockwell Kent Roland Rochette
Horace Brown Claude Dern Irwin Hoffman Luigi Lucioni Paul Sample
Asa Cheffetz Bessie Drennan David Humphreys Kyra Markham Mead Schaeffer
John Clymer Churchill Ettinger Marion Huse Dorothy R. Morgan Harry Shokler
 
 

Irwin Hoffman's color-drenched

scenes of farms and auctions

 

Photos Courtesy of Bob Brandt

CONTACT INFORMATION
Weston Antiques Show, PO Box 33, Weston, Vermont 05161-0033
802-824-5307 or Email:
info@WestonAntiquesShow.org