Running through Jan. 31, the show is inspired by observations of nature in varied global landscapes.
In March 2025, painter Colleen Kelsey traveled to the NES artist residency in Skagastrond, Iceland, where she immersed herself in visiting geothermal heated hot pots and hiking through the dramatic glacial landscape.
Kelsey’s exhibition, “Light & Shadow”, features inventive figurative paintings that highlight the color transitions observed through her studies of the Icelandic landscape, when the sun would fracture through the sky on overcast days, and the colors grew luminous.
Kelsey’s paintings, with their reverence for the history of art, feel at home in the parlor room of the DSA’s historic house setting.
A Delft-inspired vase, cartoonish in its oversized scale, rests on a marble mantel. Made of cardboard, but painted to convey a worn patina, it is filled with colorful flowers constructed from newspaper and masking tape.
The vase is decorated in phthalocyanine blue, a vibrant color derived synthetically from copper. Discovered around the 1930s, the pigment became essential in the lexicon of modern painting for artists like Kandinsky and Yves Klein. Kelsey’s use of the color is like a love letter to art history.
Other references in her work include Paul Klee, Juan Gris, and Daumier. She admires French Post-Impressionist painter Pierre Bonnard and alludes to his color palette through the use of violet and yellow.
Like Bonnard, Kelsey paints largely from memory, and imagination. “Studio Still Life” is a fantastical ode to her father. Like much of the work, it is imbued with a playful spirituality. The cigarette smoke represents the “ephemeral nature of life”, and the stack of books are “symbolic of the growing of self”. Look up Bonnard’s 1925 painting “The Window” as a reference point for Kelsey’s depiction of light.
Credit: Contributed
Credit: Contributed
Kelsey’s masterful rendering of fabric is also fictive. Steeped in the academic tradition of oil painting, she was an adjunct professor at the University of Dayton for a decade, where she taught Renaissance-inspired fabric drawing.
“I know from memory how it drapes,” she said.
The paintings are united in their themes of maternal gestures and caretaking. A motif of arms held in an open embrace show up in “The Train Ride” and “The Alms Bowl”. The latter references the Buddhist monastic tradition of going door-to-door to have an empty bowl filled for supper. In Kelsey’s version, the bowl metaphor describes what it’s like to be a mom — filling it instead with her family’s discarded items — a sock, a shoe, a pear.
Barb Stork
Barb Stork is known for her studies of the Ohio wetland, known as “the fen”, and her practice of translating onsite watercolor studies into larger studio works.
During her time at a Position on Retreat, Artist Residency at Lake Cowichan on Vancouver Island, Stork created over thirty small color studies reflecting the landscape. Working with a small watercolor palette that fit in her pocket, she would capture moments throughout the day.
“Whether it’s seeing a bald eagle at the top of a pine or hearing a barred owl in the forest, catching daily moments in a journal supports the plein air color studies and final paintings,” she said.
Credit: Hannah Kasper
Credit: Hannah Kasper
The residency, located in the temperate Vancouver rainforest, looks like an artist’s dream. It was welcomes artists at all stages of their careers, and combines guided nature excursions with studio days.
Titled “Journey Into the Landscape: Ohio to Vancouver”, Stork’s watercolor and ink sketches depict whimsical, otherworldly settings with line work focused on ethereal color. Figures including the Sasquatch and a small owl reappear like characters in a storybook.
There is a set design feel to pieces like “Warbler Song”, that reads like a storyboarding panel. Walking through the work, you can almost piece together a conversation between forest friends.
Kate Santucci
Kate Santucci carried out her residency at Chateau D’Orqueveaux, an historic country estate in northeastern France. Santucci, who normally works in wax encaustics, was challenged to adapt and come up with a new way to think about her work.
Motivated by the serene green palette of the French countryside, Santucci painted with limited colors in mixed media on unstretched canvas and paper.
“I was interested in conveying the colors and softness of the French countryside, along with the kind of line and movement that is present in all my work,” she said.
Credit: Hannah Kasper
Credit: Hannah Kasper
The collection of work, “Landscape Adjacent 2025”, has pieces brimming with gestural lines achieved through pastels and paint. On view are both self portraits and pieces focused on non-objective markmaking.
Matthew Burgy, Interim Gallery Director, described the storytelling that exists within the abstract works.
“She talked about how it was late at night, and she was finding her way around in France and she bumped into a lavender bush that had this wonderful smell, and it inspired her to create this imagery.”
About Dayton Society of Artists
The DSA was originally founded as the Dayton Society of Painters and Sculptors in 1938 by artists in association with the Dayton Art Institute, where meetings and exhibits took place for many years. The opportunity to have a gallery of their own came in the 1960s when members bought the Victorian style house at 48 High Street for $6,525.
There are currently around 300 members, with annual dues starting at $20 for students and $45 for individuals. An upcoming show in February will display pieces from the DSA’s permanent collection, including works by Jane Reece and Curtis Barnes, Sr.
Currently, the DSA exhibits seven shows a year and provides workshops and events to their members, artists, and the community. The upstairs bedrooms are rented out as private art studios.
MORE DETAILS
What: Colleen Kelsey, Kate Santucci, & Barb Stork
When: Through Jan. 31. Hours: Fridays, Saturdays, 12 p.m.-5 p.m. and by appointment. Colleen Kelsey Artist Talk: Friday, Jan. 9, 6:30-7:30 p.m.
Cost: Free
Where: Dayton Society of Artists at 48 High St, Dayton
Online: daytondsa.org
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