Staff reports 4:02 p.m.
Monday, January 27, 2020 4:02 pm

Forrest Falcey with one of his works at a recent art show. (Courtesy photo)

ROCHESTER - The Franklin Gallery at RiverStones Custom Framing will host an exhibit during the month of February featuring the work of Forrest Falcey.

Falcey is from Conway and attended Plymouth State for painting. He works at a frameshop and paints on the side. He has a standard academic painting education built on a childhood spent drawing in class. "Everyone told me I was going to be an artist as I was growing up and I never really believed them," Falcey says. "I just liked drawing because it satisfied my need to create." He got to college and took one painting class and the next four years were "over in an instant." He started landscape painting shortly after college, as he felt it was a weakness in his painting that he needed some practice to correct.

"I found that I enjoyed the challenge of creating spaces on a larger scale, so now I prefer to paint in a larger format," he says. "For these large paintings in particular, I like to work from panorama references as they provide a wider angle field of view and tend to enhance one's perspective when standing directly in front of the image. I prefer acrylic paint for its water solubility and drying speed. I do most of my painting after getting home from work at night, so just getting used to the wet-on-dry nature of the acrylic was my most effective solution. There's also the added benefit of forcing myself to become more proficient at mixing colors to match what is already dry-on-canvas as opposed to doing any wet-on-wet blending at all."

He doesn't have any intention to convey any political messages through what he creates. "I'm not trying to make any statements on human nature or even nature's nature. I paint because I enjoy painting and creating objects that satisfy my need to create." His subject matter is chosen based on what he thinks would make a decent painting composition and on what he thinks people may appreciate. If there is a particular view that he passes by in his daily life, he'll stop and take photos and then use the references to convey what he has seen and through to the viewers of his work. "My only goal is that the viewer can experience what I have seen or felt with a successful degree of fidelity."

"We as a society place great importance on the greater meaning of a work of art and the responsibility of an artist to communicate through their art," says Falcey, "but in doing so I believe that many artists will end up putting the meaning before the piece itself. I think this can discourage new artists from taking a chance and creating what they feel that they should make, because they may believe that there is an expectation that their art should be greater than the sum of its parts. Canvas, acrylic, wood, and patience is all that I work with and it's all that I have to offer. It's all that I need and that's more than enough for me."

RiverStones Custom Framing and the Franklin Gallery are open Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. and Saturday, 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. They are located at 33 North Main St. in downtown Rochester, For information about this exhibit and other RiverStones events and services, call (603) 812-1488, or send an e-mail to riverstonescustomframing@gmail.com.