honeyjones
REAR VIEW WHILE DRIVING FORWARD
Frank Capezzera’s Evolving Landscapes of the Outer Cape 2003 -2023
This retrospective showing speaks tenderly of a cherished sense of belonging to a place known distinctly in formative years;
a place defined by natural beauty and the people who were fortunate to build their lives within it.
Visit the gallery and be transported to a slower pace of life in the sunlit grasses, undulant landforms...days gone sailing and fishing, and the clear starry nights of Frank’s childhood. This is a showing which offers the viewer and mature buyer both the
reassuring balance of sea and sky along with a strong nostalgic resonance.
Read about Frank's connection to the Outer Cape and his experimentation in composition and technique in his own words below
within the artwork slide show which is displayed chronologically beginning with his most recent work.
Frank's paintings are on view through March 26.
Closing Reception Sunday, March 26 from 1:00 - 3:00pm
Potential additional event tba.
Net proceeds to the artist are donated to public charities Caritas Communities, Inc. and
Notre Dame Cristo Rey High School in Lawrence, MA, both of which serve to address the housing and education needs of
greater Boston area families.
Rear View While Driving Forward: Frank Capezzera’s Evolving Landscapes of the Outer Cape 2003-2023
Biographical Note
I fell in love with Truro, Massachusetts and the Outer Cape as a child, and I remain in love to this day. It was in Truro that I began to dream of being an artist. There, through a dear family friend, the eight year old me met Edward Hopper and his wife, Jo. In the late 60’s, after the
Hoppers had died and our friend had inherited their house on the Bay, she allowed me to live there for part of two summers. At all hours and conditions, I gazed at the iconic moors through the enormous north facing factory window of Hopper’s studio. The experience was profound.
I have always made art but never for exhibition until recently. In preparation for retirement from my legal career, I decided to begin making paintings that I might eventually exhibit in public and thus complete my experience as an artist, that is, to share my work with others.
My Practice
Much of my work has been inspired by nature, especially the terrain and shores of Truro and Provincetown. I also make human figurative art inspired by Michelangelo, Matisse, Hopper and the artists of the Bay Area Figurative Movement. I work in oils, acrylics, watercolor, gouache, sumi-e, charcoal and ink. Drawing is always the starting point and the underlying tool of my creativity. I love to draw and paint on paper. Oil
paint, with its unique qualities and challenges became my first choice for landscapes on canvas and panels.
This Show
The paintings in this show span about twenty years and are part of a larger body of work that focuses entirely on beloved views and places in Truro and Provincetown. The work falls into three groups, chronologically and by approach.
The first group of paintings produced between 2003 to 2012 represent my first serious efforts to paint Corn Hill, Ballston Beach, Pilgrim Lake, the Province Lands, the Pamet River and the Hopper Landscape. I think of these works as an innocent search for expressions that connect with my memories and experience of those places.
In the second group I experimented with more simplified forms and explored bolder uses of paint and palette knives. Some deviate from conventional colors as I attempted to evoke nature’s infinite variety and surprise. My aim, as always, is to find an expression that comes
closest to my feeling about a place in a moment.
The third group are paintings that push past conventional language and take more risks with color and form. They are mostly completed within the past three years and are informed by what I have learned in human figurative painting about the nature of ambiguity, uncertain narrative,
and surprise. I hope that these paintings provide a wide latitude for viewer interpretation as they do for me as the maker.
Frank Capezzera. February, 2023
Frank with his artwork included in Cosmos at honeyjones in August 2022
