Sawyer Free Library to Showcase Gloucester Cityscapes in February

Paintings by local artist Erin Luman focus on overlooked lines and edges we walk by everyday
Gloucester artist Erin Luman with her daughter Hazel and one of her “City Spaces” paintings on display at the Sawyer Free Library this month. Courtesy photo.

John McElhenny shares –

GLOUCESTER, Feb. 4, 2015 – The Sawyer Free Library has kicked off a month-long exhibition of the works of Gloucester artist Erin Luman, whose “City Spaces” paintings focus on the rooftops, power lines and tiny architectural details of Gloucester that many of us pass every day without noticing.

Luman’s paintings highlight typical Gloucester scenes – a doorway on Center Street, a roofscape on Washington Street, a house on School Street. By capturing them on canvas, she forces us to stop and consider the everyday beauty in the heart of our city. The largest painting in Luman’s library show highlights the Birdseye building on Commercial Street, which was recently razed to build a new hotel.

“There is nothing more satisfying than seeing something old in a new light,” said Luman. “Neighborhoods and buildings I’ve walked past a million times become new when pencil hits paper. To slow everything down and find the balance between places that might be considered ‘ugly’ and the beauty in them is what keeps me inside this series.”

Luman, who lives in downtown Gloucester, worked with the renowned Gloucester painter Zygmund Jankowski to catalogue and photograph his entire collection before his death. Luman’s paintings from her “City Scapes” collection will be on display in the main entry of the Sawyer Free Library for the month of February.

For more information, visit www.erinluman.com.