News From the Town of Colonie

Paula A. Mahan Town Supervisor

 

Town Hall Exhibit Features Nature Photographs

Newtonville , N.Y. – Award-winning photographer Cheryl J. Gowie captures the wonder and detail of nature in a new exhibit entitled “In the Moment,” the latest exhibit in the Town of Colonie 's Memorial Town Hall Art Series. The show will run until August 31, 2012.

“These images take us to a peaceful world, rich in beauty,” said Town Supervisor Paula A. Mahan. “The artist sees her subjects with a clear eye and records them with a masterful lens. I think everyone who sees this show will feel her reverence and respect for nature.”

“I am most at peace in the woods, yet simultaneously most alert to details and beauty,” says Gowie. She said most of the show's images of flowers, birds, and white-tailed deer were captured in the Capital Region. Other images reflect favorite locations in the American Southwest and Yellowstone National Park .

A serious photographer for many years, Gowie says a National Geographic photography workshop she attended in 2008 “changed my photography and moved it more toward the center of my life.”

She says part of the change came from the requirement that students in the workshop use a digital camera, which ultimately proved freeing in providing her with new technical possibilities and more immediate results.

The title of the show derives from a Gowie image of a fawn in a field of wildflowers looking out at the camera. After she commented to her workshop teacher on her luck in capturing the image, he countered that the picture was not the result of chance. “When we are fully in the moment, these gifts present themselves,” he said.

This meditative sense of “the moment” informs the show's 44 images, which reflect attention to the smallest details of the natural world and an almost Asian sensibility in Gowie's evocative, misty landscapes.

Combining her love of photography with a strong commitment to environmentalism, Gowie says, “I hope that if people are able to take a closer look at the beauty of the natural world, they will be motivated to take better care of the environment.”

Gowie, who is Professor of Education at Siena College, has exhibited widely in the area, winning a Times Union “Critic's Choice” award in 2010 and the “Best Abstract” award at the “Best of 2009 Photo Show” at the Photographic Center of the Capital District.

The exhibit, which is free and open to the public, is on view from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays on the second floor of Memorial Town Hall, 534 Loudon Road, Newtonville, NY.

Visitors should enter by the main door and sign in at the visitor's desk.