Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Glorious Water ohh Glorious Watercolor

Dustan Knight is at it again, "Amoskego Falls" by Knight was recently commissioned by New Hampshire State Council for the Arts. What an amazing piece. I saw it in person before the installation and it knocked my socks off, it's a whopping 72" x 48" original watercolor. If your in the area of Manchester, NH I highly recommend seeing the piece in person.

Just installed in the new Library at the Manchester Community College Campus in Manchester NH.
"The competition is tip-top for these awards and I am thrilled to have one of my paintings included."~ Dustan Knight

The Arts program is a national program that reserves 1/2% (or there abouts) of a public buildings' overall budget for original art. The process for submitting proposals for consideration is a lengthy one. Artists must first qualify to present through a jury process and then, if they are selected, they go to the site for a tour and building presentation. They have a couple months to come up with a proposal for the site. Usually the folks that live or work at the building site participate in the jurying so they are able to request the art pieces create a certain feeling, or relate to the buildings use or location. Some of the ideas from the group suggested water and reference to Manchester the Amoskeag River. It was the main travel and working route for lumber and transporting wool. The mills along its shores really defined the city in the 1800's and early 1900's. The waterfall is a source of electric power and recently the State has built a salmon ladder. The river is one of just a few North Atlantic salmon spawning river left and many nature conservancy groups have come together to try to make it passable for the fish to travel upstream once again. Its a very fragile project that has actually succeeded to some extent. There are salmon ladder windows that allow visitors to actually watch the fish underwater as they swim upstream against the tremendous flow of the falls. Very dramatic and powerful. "I was thinking about all that plus the effort of being in school and struggling against the real world's demands to seek higher level of understandings. I know I often felt like I was fighting to succeed in my career during my years at school. The library is really where it all happens, you are on your own, pushing ahead...striving."~ Dustan Knight. It is painted so 'big' - big color big expression.