Follow this link to read the Newcity Art Review for “Less (and) More: Modernism Greets the River Landscape”
Farnsworth House, gallery installation shots.
The Barnsworth Gallery July 11 - Sept. 19, 2021.
Farnsworth House Announces Joel Sheesley Painting Exhibition
Less (and) More: Modernism Greets the River Landscape
Barnsworth Gallery at the Farnsworth House
July 11 – September 19, 2021
14520 River Road Plano, IL 60545 630-552-0052
farnsworth@farnsworthhouse.org
Less (and) More: Modernism Greets the River Landscape at the Barnsworth Gallery, is an exhibition of Fox River landscape paintings that gives viewers a sense of the land and environment in which the Farnsworth House is situated.
The Modernist precision and refined proportions of the Farnsworth House architecture are seen in relation to the natural forces that shape the river and the floodplain landscape on which the Farnsworth House sits.
Joel Sheesley is a painter and the inaugural artist-in-residence at Farnsworth House (2020-21).
Joel’s current work addresses the local northeastern Illinois landscape. In 2017 he began a three year project under the auspices of The Conservation Foundation to paint landscapes of the Fox River Valley.
This work was exhibited at Aurora University’s Schingoethe Center and published in A Fox River Testimony, a book featuring more than seventy of his paintings of the Fox River. Mr. Sheesley is a professor emeritus of Wheaton College where he taught painting for 42 years. Sheesley’s work has been exhibited widely and in 2020 he was inducted into the Fox Valley Arts Hall of Fame. Joel Sheesley lives in Wheaton, Ill.
Artist’s Statement
Initially I planned only to paint the river landscape around the Farnsworth House, but my curiosity drove me to the House itself as a kind of lens through which to view the surrounding land. Once inside I found the dual voices of Mies van der Rohe and Edith Farnsworth, represented in architecture and furnishings respectively, and together these influenced my perception of the landscape. Mies framed the view, but Edith qualified it with human presence.
I ended up making two paintings that offer the landscape through the lens of the house. Edith’s chairs and plants, her side table with binoculars, and her dinner table with its place settings suggest elements of narrative that personalize the land outside the windows. I am reminded that the Fox River landscape is a storied landscape, the Farnsworth chapter a highlight within the tale.
Sheesley’s book, A Fox River Testimony, was published in 2017 in partnership with The Conservation Foundation and features more than seventy of his paintings of the Fox River.
Farnsworth House acknowledges support from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.
News
To read the essay, "Heaven and Earth: Reading Gilead through the Landscape of the Fox River" Click Here
A FOX RIVER TESTIMONY (The Book!)
NOW AVAILABLE at:
Anderson’s Bookshop, Naperville
Town House Books, St. Charles
The Arboretum Store, Morton Arboretum, Lisle
Wheaton College Bookstore, Wheaton
“A Fox River Testimony is not a collection of paintings; it is a journey, one that immerses readers in the ceaseless play of a river-carved landscape and its tributaries of meaning. Sheesley creates an intimate portrait of the everyday glory of these life-giving waters as they wend their way through forest, prairie, and city. He shows us how to face a river, open to the possibility of love. Readers will feel the humility of an artist who reverences the living landscape and wonders if he is up to the task of doing it justice. Open this book, enter its flow, and you’ll see for yourself that he does.” Gavin Van Horn, Director of Cultures of Conservation for the Center for Humans and Nature, and author of The Way of Coyote: Shared Journeys in the Urban Wilds
A Fox River Testimony: Selected Works
April 13 - May 18, 2019 Little White School Museum: 72 Polk Street, Oswego, IL. Hours: Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 12pm-5pm.
Concurrent with Geneva History Museum exhibition
NOW ON VIEW THRU MAY 24, 2019
GENEVA HISTORY MUSEUM
A Fox River Testimony: Select Works by Joel Sheesley
113 SOUTH THIRD STREET, GENEVA, IL hours: 11am-4pm Tues. - Sat. Contact: 630-232-4951
Video-Interview about the exhibition:
Northwest Herald
Aurora University exhibit showcases diversity of Fox River
By SHAW MEDIA Aug. 22, 2018
A project that began about two years ago to bring attention to the importance, beauty and many moods of the Fox River has resulted in 73 original oil paintings that will be exhibited from Sept. 20 through Dec. 14 at the Schingoethe Center at Aurora University, titled, “A Fox River Testimony.”
An opening reception will be from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Sept. 20, followed at 6:45 p.m. by a lecture, “The Paradoxical Landscape Frame,” presented by the artist in the Tapper Recital Hall. Reservations are necessary for the lecture and can be made at auartsandideas.com or by calling 630-844-4924.
The paintings are the work of plein air artist Joel Sheesley, who partnered with The Conservation Foundation for Art of the Fox as part of its Fox River Initiative, a program to help connect residents with the river and engage them in becoming environmentally conscious through local projects. As artist in residence, Sheesley set up his easel at various points along the river in all kinds of weather at different times of the day to showcase the beauty of the natural areas and human communities along its shores.
What began as a project to produce 50 to 60 oil paintings ended with 73 for the exhibit. “I ended up with 73 paintings because I really couldn’t see a place to stop,” Sheesley said. “I like that number because it has a kind of an indeterminate feel – as if in midstream.”
The project has taken Sheesley along an 80-mile stretch from Dundee to Ottawa. The Fox River headwaters begin near Waukesha, Wisconsin, before entering Illinois at the Chain O’ Lakes in McHenry County and flowing through Kane and Kendall counties before meeting up with the Illinois River near Ottawa in LaSalle County.
Sheesley’s travels included canoeing to some locations, hiking trails and off the path with his French easel and paint box across his back, and even camping overnight to capture the light from the sunset and sunrise as it caressed the river’s surface. Following the meandering river, Sheesley found himself in some diverse habitats: wetlands, agricultural, glacially formed lakes, sandstone bluffs and densely populated urban areas.
The paintings are available to buy, ranging from $575 for an 11-by-14-inch canvas, up to $2,175 for an 18-by-36-inch canvas. High-quality giclée prints of 16 selections from the exhibit will be available at a reduced cost.
Sheesley, an emeritus professor of art at Wheaton College, chronicled his field experiences along with photos of the paintings in a 160-page coffee table book called “A Fox River Testimony,” which will be available at the exhibit for $49.95.
For information on the exhibit, visit aurora.edu/museum or artofthefox.org.
The Schingoethe Center is an agent of and catalyst for teaching and learning on the Aurora University campus. The center is at Aurora University, 1315 Prairie St., Aurora.
The Conservation Foundation is one of the region’s oldest and largest nonprofit land and watershed conservation organizations with more than 4,000 members. Founded in 1972, TCF has helped preserve more than 35,000 acres of open space, restored and cleaned miles of rivers and streams, and educated thousands of people by engaging them in nature and the outdoors.
TCF’s mission is to improve the health of our communities by preserving and restoring natural areas and open space, protecting rivers and watersheds, and promoting stewardship of the environment. Work is focused in DuPage, Kane, Kendall and Will counties to preserve and restore nature in neighborhoods. For information, visit theconservationfoundation.org.
A Fox River Testimony - Will be available soon! The book is going to press!
Endorsements for the book:
“A Fox River Testimony is not a collection of paintings; it is a journey, one that immerses readers in the ceaseless play of a river-carved landscape and its tributaries of meaning. Sheesley creates an intimate portrait of the everyday glory of these life-giving waters as they wend their way through forest, prairie, and city. He shows us how to face a river, open to the possibility of love. Readers will feel the humility of an artist who reverences the living landscape and wonders if he is up to the task of doing it justice. Open this book, enter its flow, and you’ll see for yourself that he does.” Gavin Van Horn, Director of Cultures of Conservation for the Center for Humans and Nature, and author of The Way of Coyote: Shared Journeys in the Urban Wilds
Sheesley's paintings are beautiful and insightful meditations on the Fox River landscape. His essays that accompany each image are even more profound, setting up an inner dialogue that we share with him about the process of looking at and capturing a place in time. This book reminds us of the wonder of our immediate world and carries a gentle admonition to understand our agency and responsibility to our environment.
Doug Stapleton, Associate Curator of Art, Illinois State Museum
Joel Sheesley’s A Fox River Testimony fills me with a sense of longing for this world, in all its moods and turns and sudden openings, and for something just beyond it, whispering through it. How did the painter know to place himself in just this relation to the river’s sheen and seams and secrets, and how did he quiet himself enough to respond so deeply and so well? I find myself asking this with each painting, as if learning to look and feel and love with this sort of embedded openness was not only what we were put on the earth to do, but as if now, finally, when it mattered most, I had someone willing to show me how. Thomas Gardner Alumni Distinguished Professor of English, Virginia Tech
Through Sheesley's close attention to wind and weather, muskrats and mallards, slants of light, patterns of motion, and the contrasts between brokenness and beauty, we are drawn into the life of the river and the Illinois communities that push into its shoreline. His images and evocative words provoke a passion in us for the Fox River itself, and prompt a deeper desire to care for this and other vulnerable---and sometimes overlooked---places. Sheesley stunningly completes the task he has set for himself with this transformative project: "..to make what is visible evoke the invisible." Cindy Crosby "The Tallgrass Prairie: An Introduction" and "Tallgrass Conversations: In Search of the Prairie Spirit."
GRAND OPENING AND EXHIBITION OF FOX RIVER PAINTINGS
Schingoethe Center of Aurora University - September 20 - December 13, 2018
MAY ARTIST OF THE MONTH - CENTER FOR HUMANS AND NATURE
READ THE INTERVIEW
I'm delighted to have been chosen as "MAY ARTIST OF THE MONTH" by the Center for Humans and Nature. Check out my interview and learn about their work here: https://www.humansandnature.org/the-life-of-a-river-an-interview-with-joel-sheesley
CENTER FOR HUMANS & NATURE: Expanding Our Natural & Civic Imagination
THE LIFE OF A RIVER: AN INTERVIEW WITH JOEL SHEESLEY
“FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Feb. 14 at 7pm, Hickory Knolls Discovery Center, St. Charles
Fox River artist shares outdoor experiences with Kane Audubon chapter
What’s it like to hike with your backpack stuffed with a canvas, brushes and paint on a chilly morning; or on a hot, sweaty afternoon to catch a sunset?
The Conservation Foundation’s artist-in-residence Joel Sheesley will tell about his experiences painting Fox River landscapes during all kinds of weather as he addresses the Kane County Audubon chapter on Wednesday, February 14 at 7 p.m. at Hickory Knolls Discovery Center in St. Charles.
As a plein air artist, Sheesley captures the “genius loci” by placing himself outdoors in the settings he captures in oil. He’s creating dozens of paintings at various locations along the Fox River depicting its many moods and beauty throughout the seasons to culminate in an exhibit in the fall of 2018 when the works will be available for sale. Sheesley also will feature the paintings and writings from his blog in a coffee table book called, “A Fox River Testimony.”
Painting “en plein air”, French for outside, is an old technique embraced by many artists including Monet and Gaugin who put themselves in the landscapes they painted to benefit from the ever-changing outdoor lighting to create their masterpieces. Sheesley will share his newly found appreciation of the River’s character and value from his experiences painting along its banks.
The program is free and open to everyone. For more information, go to theconservationfoundation.org/lovethefox. Hickory Knolls Discovery Center is at 3795 Campton Hills Dr., St. Charles 60175.
With more than 4,000 members, The Conservation Foundation is one of the region’s oldest and largest not-for-profit land and watershed conservation organizations. Since it was founded in 1972, TCF has helped preserve more than 35,000 acres of open space, restored and cleaned miles of rivers and streams, and educated thousands of kids by engaging them in nature and the outdoors.
TCF’s mission is to improve the health of our communities by preserving and restoring natural areas and open space, protecting rivers and watersheds, and promoting stewardship of our environment.
Work is focused in DuPage, Kane, Kendall and Will Counties to preserve and restore nature in your neighborhood. Find out more at theconservationfoundation.org.
”
Fine Line Creative Arts Center
37W570 Bolcum Road
St. Charles, IL 60175
Phone 630.584.9443
info@fineline.org
Gail Borden Public Library 270 N. Grove Ave.
Elgin, IL 60120
847-742-2411
Follow this link to read the Newcity Art Review for “Less (and) More: Modernism Greets the River Landscape”
Wheaton College: This event included a month-long exhibition of 12 Fox River paintings and a lecture on Oct. 2 titled "Heaven and Earth: Reading Gilead through the Landscape of the Fox River." Gilead is a novel by Marilynne Robinson. Gilead is the core book for Wheaton College in 2017-18.
Here's a short video about the Fox River/Gilead project.