Kate and Bill Gridley Show Recent Work at the Library

By Dorothy S. Pam

“Thaw” by William Gridley, Watercolor

Father and daughter artists, Kate and Bill Gridley, return to the Norfolk Library with a new show for the month of June. For “Inspiration from the Land,” Kate Gridley created botanical illustrations in watercolor of plants from her own garden and varieties of apples found in the Cornwall, Vermont orchard of a friend. Dr. Collier. She has also created oil on panel paintings of objects found in the outdoors, such as bird feathers and eggs. There are several larger watercolors of the landscape during mud season. Trained in New York and Italy, Gridley creates her paintings using Renaissance techniques in preparing chalk grounds, cooking varnishes, and grinding her oil colors. Her work is in private collections in the U.S. and Europe, and has been shown in New York and Boston. She spends her days painting at her home in Middlebury, Vermont where she lives with her husband, Norfolk native John Barstow, and sons Charles and Angus. Kate Gridley’s portrait drawings have appeared in “Mission Rejected, U.S. Soldiers Say No to Iraq,” by Peter Laufer. Her landscape and botanical drawings grace “The Cook and The Gardner,” by New York Times columnist Amanda Hesser, and she has won a “Best Illustration” award from the Garden Writers of America. Light and the atmosphere it creates are important elements in the work of both daughter and father. Kate Gridley says she works to capture light “from pure morning sun on an old chair, to pale afternoon winter light on barns and sheds, to diffuse light falling on dried artichoke flowers.” Bill Gridley, originally a weekend painter, passed on his love for capturing nature to his daughter. Now that he is retired, he can paint as often as he wishes. He paints landscapes of places he cares about at different times of day, in different seasons, and in different kinds of light. His most recent watercolors are in the June show, which opens with a reception for the artists on Sunday, June 1, from 4 to 6 p.m.