First Friday: Opening Reception for Visual Artist Valerie Vermeulen

The Gallery at 42 Maple Contemporary Art Center is pleased to present original abstract paintings by NH native, Valerie Vermeulen, which will be on display for the month of May. Valerie spends her days studying and recording the constant, subtle, changing elements of nature and life in various environments of Northern New England. Her work provides a nostalgic sense of place and simplicity, yet is ultimately defined by the infinite. Her hope is to elevate the viewer, both aesthetically and spiritually.

Her images are reflective, surreal, and organic in nature. Her work also explores the mystery and the solitude of the anonymous human experience. She says she is driven to capture the changing atmosphere and the endless nuances of a landscape, both physical and psychological, to reveal the truth of a limitless reality. In the image, a dream is reflected, and the esoteric quality of a moment has been remembered.

Valerie was raised in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire where she now resides with her husband and two children. She attended the University of New Hampshire and studied Literature and Creative Writing. She received the Faculty Poetry Prize her Junior year awarded by the Pulitzer Prize poet Charles Simic. After graduating, despite her passion for writing, she decided to pursue Visual Arts and has been painting diligently ever since. Recently her interest has also turned to photography and an admitted obsession with landscapes. She has shown and sold her paintings both locally and nationally in galleries and through private commissions, and is now pursuing a career in freelance photography as well.

A portion of all art sales at Valerie’s opening reception, on Friday, May 5th from 7 pm to 9 pm, will be donated to the New Hampshire Food Bank. Her artwork will be on display until May 29th.