The West End Gallery in downtown Corning to host weekend artist expo

Meet the Artists, SLIDESHOW preview

“Arts in Bloom”: A Chemung and Steuben County Arts Trail

West End Gallery is pleased to announce it is 1 (one) of 11 (eleven) participating venues for the upcoming return of “Arts in Bloom”, a Chemung and Steuben County Arts Trail.  We’re pleased to announce the return of “Arts in Bloom”!  This is a Chemung and Steuben County Arts Trail highlighting and celebrating the amazing artistic talent in our region!  Participants include Artist Studios and Art Galleries.  We highly encourage you to visit ALL 11 locations on this year’s “Arts in Bloom” Art Trail!

Resides in Ithaca, NY (oil painting demo)

Additionally, Trish Coonrod is currently featured in the 2024 March/April Issue of Life in the Finger Lakes Magazine

Trish Coonrod is a still life painter living in the Finger Lakes Region of New York.  She earned a BFA in painting from Washington University in St. Louis, and an MFA from the New York Academy of Art in New York City.  She has been exhibiting her work at West End Gallery since 2013, and is also represented by galleries in Virginia, New Mexico, Wisconsin, South Carolina, and Oklahoma.

“More and more I am finding subject matter in things I’ve grown in my garden.  These include tomatoes, figs, raspberries, asparagus, and apples.  Being able to watch a plant grow allows more opportunities to study them in preparation for a painting.  I’ve recently been including homegrown flowers in the mix, and in this most recent spotlight show are paintings of daffodils, gladioli, and an amaryllis that are all from my garden.  I’m especially drawn to amaryllises due to their large sculptural blooms that develop over several weeks.  I care for over 50 amaryllis bulbs, replanting them in season each year, and observing them several times a day to see what inspiration they might provide.  For me, an amaryllis in bloom brings to mind humans in relationship to one another.”

~ Trish Coonrod

Amy Hutto Saturday, April 27^th 11:00am-2:00pm
Resides in Bath, NY (acrylic painting demo)

Amy Hutto is an acrylic and mixed media artist living in Bath, New York.  She specializes in works filled with vivid color, bold textures, and unique renderings of traditional subjects.

Amy Hutto is an acrylic fine artist living in Upstate New York.  Originally from Texas, and having lived in Colorado as well, her time living and travelling in such varied places has greatly influenced Amy’s art from her unique renderings of wild and domestic animals to her bold abstracts.  Formally an art educator of 23 years, Hutto is pursuing the life she spent so many years instructing her students about.  She hopes to engage viewers of her work, inviting them to see beyond the initial glimpse, to pause and connect on a deeper level; to be drawn in by layers of color and energy created by textures and streaks and droplets of gold leaf…to see the traditional with new eyes.

“New techniques, experimenting with color, layering texture and the act of pure creation are what drive my work.  It is exciting to create something that never existed before, from a blank canvas and tubes of paint; to convey ideas, emotions, and feelings without having to speak.  It makes me happy, and I want to share that with others.” 

~ Amy Hutto

Gina Pfleegor Saturday, April 27^th 1:00pm-4:00pm
Resides in Corning, NY (oil painting demo)

Gina graduated from the State University of New York at Fredonia in 1998 with a Bachelor of Art in Graphic Design and a Bachelor of Science in Communication.  In 2000, she decided to pursue her Master of Arts Education at Elmira College while also starting a career as an illustrator.  She began teaching art at Hammondsport High School shortly thereafter as well as illustrating material for dozens of magazines and various promotional material.  Her first illustrated children’s book, entitled I Like Gum (written by Doreen Tango Hampton), was published in 2007 by Shenanigan Books.  For the next several years, she went on to have dozens of children’s books and educational material published by McGraw Hill, the Brown Publishing Network, and many more.

In 2013, Gina had an artistic change of heart and began a new journey as a photorealist painter working primarily in oils.  She has since won several notable awards, including the Four Columns Award at the Arnot Regional Exhibition (Twice) and she was a finalist in the international Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize competition.

“In my more recent series of paintings, I found myself drawn to a subject I know well, that balance of feeling strong yet feminine as a woman in our society today.  Attempting to depict a sense of authenticity regarding what this can often feel like, I used symbolism to show that we can be both without sacrificing the other.  Sensual can be strong, determined can be vulnerable, and sometimes warriors wear gowns into battle.”

~Gina Pfleegor

Ileen Kaplan Sunday, April 28^th 12:00pm-2:00pm
Resides in Rock Stream, NY (oil painting demo)

“I am a painter living in the glorious Finger Lakes Region of Upstate New York.  In my paintings I try to capture everything about a moment in time: the light, the feeling, the sense of space, the action, the stillness.  My paintings are colorful, and I presently work in oil.  Although I have also used acrylic paints as well.  My work is representational, yet I don’t strive for photorealism.  In all of my paintings, whether they are still life, portraits, landscapes, or cityscapes, I try to connect with the subject, so that by the time I am finished I feel like I have inhabited the scene.  I hope the viewer does as well.”

“The more I paint and observe the world around me, the more I am aware of the existence of layers.  Nothing is opaque.  Everything appears to be composed of layers of shifting colors, light, and shapes, all superimposed upon each other.  This astonishes and inspires me.  I often paint over colored grounds or older paintings, and I am always excited by the ghost images that peek through the layers of paint.  These layers represent to me the depth and mystery of the visual world.  

I am endlessly intrigued by patterns of light and shadow.  The most ordinary object becomes overwhelmingly beautiful when light falls on it in just the right way.  The most familiar scene becomes magical when the sun shines on it at a particular angle.  I am always searching for these moments, and my quest is to express what I see and feel.  The closer I look, the more I see.  The more I see, the more excited I become and the more I want to paint what I am seeing and feeling.  The challenge is to transform that initial excitement into a painting.”

~ Ileen Kaplan

Judy Soprano Sunday, April 28^th 12:30pm-3:30pm
Resides in Livonia, NY (Watercolor painting demo)

“I opened the door to my creativity and found my soul.  I grew up on a farm so my love for the rural scenes is easily seen in all of my paintings.  I love the way farmers construct barns and sheds on their farms.  It seems to me to be very creative for a barn to be built then the add-ons come as the years go on and as the need arises.  Our barn was the playground for my brothers and me.  It was our Tarzan swing, our fort for cowboys and Indians and our castle for the king and queen (I was always the queen).  My next love is trees.  I love them in the winter when you can see their bones.  And next come shadows.  The way shadows run across the land…I can see them moving when I paint them into a winter scene.  They show me how the land lies and how it rises and falls over the bumps in the back land of our farm.  The greatest compliment I ever received was when my nephew at age 9 said he could ride his bike down the road in one of my paintings.  For a landscape painter that was the best compliment ever because that little boy saw depth in the scene on the flat surface of the canvas.  How exciting!  I work in both oil and watercolor, but I love to draw…mysketchpad is my constant companion.  I can’t think of a better way to say it and it sounds like very poor grammar but…” I can’t not paint.” I feel that my life has been enriched in many ways: my husband, my children & my obsession with creating art.”

~ Judy Soprano

J. Harlan Ritchey Sunday, April 28^th 2:00pm-4:00pm
Resides in State College, PA (Watercolor painting demo)

J. Harlan Ritchey was born in central Pennsylvania in 1977.  A self-taught artist, he received his BA in Filmmaking from Penn State in 1999, with Honors in Visual Arts.  Since then, he has done commissions for art and illustration for a range of local and national clients and began teaching workshops in 2015.  He enjoys working in pencil, pen, and ink, but is currently focused on watercolor and gouache.  He lives and works in State College, PA.

“Painting (and color painting in particular) is relatively new to me, something I’ve done for less than a decade.  Drawing has always been my first interest; I consider myself first and foremost a draftsman.  Although I don’t have formal artistic training, and because my visual inspirations range from the Old Masters to B-movies and comic books, I try to invest each image with a variety of art-historical, cultural, and personal influences.  In choosing which subjects to turn into pictures, my primary consideration is whether I can adequately illustrate the impressions they gave me when I was there in person–a sort of documentary of sensations.  My ultimate goal is to convey the profound sense of connection I feel to places where I live and work.”

~ J. Harlan Ritchey

Details about West End Gallery’s location, accessibility, and exhibit schedule:

Upstairs Gallery: In addition to the painting demonstrations, the Spring Spotlight Exhibit is on view in the Main Gallery.  There is also new artwork by more than 30 exceptional artists on display in the Upstairs Gallery on the second floor.

Painting Demos: Saturday, April 27^th 10:00am-4:00pm AND Sunday, April 28^th Noon-4:00pm

Enjoy Exhibits In person and Online: In person at West End Gallery – 12 West Market St. in Corning, NY and online at www.WestEndGallery.net. Exhibit will debut online by 11am on Opening Day.

Special Previews: Please call to inquire about exclusive in-person and online previews.  Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook facebook.com/WestEndGalleryCorning to get a sneak peek!

Admission: All events are FREE and open to the public.  Families are encouraged to visit.

Accessibility: Main exhibits and first floor demos are wheelchair accessible, and our website has AudioEye Accessibility Certification.

Gallery Hours: The Gallery is open for walk-ins Tuesday – Saturday from 11:00am – 5:00pm. Private appointments are available on additional days/hours.  Please call in advance to schedule a private appointment: 607.936.2011