A solo exhibition and sale of paintings by artist Martha Sperling begins with a public reception Friday, Dec. 16, at the Solebury Historical Society, 3020 N. Sugan Road, Solebury.
“Flowers and Solebury Landscapes,” with a painting to be raffled to benefit the society, continues from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 17 and Sunday, Dec. 18. Sperling, a Solebury resident, has been a society volunteer for the past few years.
Sperling’s Bucks County landscapes and flowers reflect a Pennsylvania Impressionist’s sense of light and shadow, and color. Her colors are true to nature and yet, seeing the blue, gold and pink tones on canvas or paper brings the viewer a more vivid sense of the colors that exist in even the most somber of overcast days, and her flowers glow with the freshness of a morning garden.
The exhibition includes oils on large canvasses and smaller oils, watercolors and pastels.
Sperling is an award winning landscape artist who lives in Solebury. Her paintings have been featured in invitational juried exhibitions and many are represented in private collections. Sperling’s work has been described as atmospheric and meditative, alluding to landscapes with minimal detail while keeping the viewer’s interest with a subtle use of light and shadow.
Despite a more than 40-year career as an attorney, Sperling has always been an artist at heart.
“My mother signed me up for art lessons in summer school in Riverside, Calif. I was 9, and I was hooked,” she said. “At the age of 12, I took classes with local watercolorist, Jean Burford in Churchville, Bucks County. I painted the entire time I was in high school and college, studying with Paul Keene in figure painting and Alan Goldstein in abstract art at Bucks County Community College.
“Although I was offered a place at Cooper Union, my family influenced my decision to become a lawyer, and I practiced law for over 40 years. It’s not that I didn’t do art, it just moved to the back burner.
“I studied plein air at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts on weekends, and when time would allow. When I finally had enough of law, I started to paint full time, dubbing myself a recovering attorney.
Sperling took classes with Marge Kavooshian, Miriam Warfield, Rachel Anthonisen, Kelly Sullivan, Jim Lukens, Betty Minnucci, George Thompson, Patrice DeVigilis and many others.
Her work was accepted at the 34th and 36th Ellarslie Open at the Trenton City Museum, the Salmagundi Club in NYC and the Philadelphia Sketch Club. A longtime member of the Doylestown Art League, she exhibited many times in the League’s annual show and in shows at Phillips’ Mill, New Hope, Lambertville, Stockton and Doylestown, and had two solo shows in 2018 and 2019.
“I left law far behind,” said Sperling. “Art should always be first!”
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