Landing Gallery, 409 Main St. in Rockland opens "Nature As Color", a solo exhibition of 55 new paintings by Irma Cerese, Aug 4 to Sept 10. The Opening Reception will be held on Friday, August 4, from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. during Arts In Rockland's first Friday art walk in August.

Irma has always been fascinated with color and her primary interest in painting is focused on color relationships. Her current paintings use the intrinsic beauty and evocative qualities of color to speak to our emotions. Her landscape compositions become an entry point into her paintings rather than depict a specific location or illustrate an idea.

"I use landscape both as a point of connection and departure but I don't wish to tell a story, or accurately describe the observed world, so I don't "return to a place in the studio". Instead, I convert the primary elements of what inspired me in the first place - trees, sky, ground, water, weather, the occasional building, - into an underlying loosely geometric structure. The resulting images often border on the abstract, although I often seek to evoke the general atmosphere of the subject. So I don't seek to inspire people viewing my work with this or that place; I aim to produce evocative work that is compelling in its own right as a celebration of visual experience."

Irma Cerese received her formal training at the Academy of Art and the School of the Art Institute, both in Chicago, IL. Irma maintained a studio in New York City until 1985 and her paintings are in numerous private, corporate and institutional collections in the United States and Europe. Landing Gallery in Rockland, Maine, is Irma Cerese's principal gallery affiliation and the gallery has held 11 consecutive, annual, solo exhibitions for her paintings since 2007.

Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Sunday 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., Closed Monday, For more information (207) 239-1223 or www.LandingArt.com