Studio Montclair announces a very special exhibition, “Celebration: the Art of Catherine Kinkade”. This exhibition and fundraiser in support of Studio Montclair, in partnership with BrassWorks Gallery, will be showing in two locations. It will run from August 7 to 23 at Studio Montclair’s Leach Gallery, 641 Bloomfield Avenue, Montclair, NJ, and through August 28 at BrassWorks Gallery, 105 Grove Street, Montclair. An Opening Reception will take place on Friday, August 7 – starting at BrassWorks Gallery from 4 to 6pm, continuing at SMI’s Leach Gallery from 6 to 8pm. All are welcome.

“Celebration: the Art of Catherine Kinkade” is a memorial exhibition and fundraiser celebrating the life and work of Catherine Kinkade – a painter of extraordinary feeling, a generous and devoted teacher, and one of the most warmly cherished figures in the Montclair arts community for nearly four decades.

Catherine passed away late last year, and the loss has been felt throughout this community in ways that are still hard to put into words. She left behind a legacy of luminous artwork and an even more extraordinary devotion to the artists and organizations she loved. Among those closest to her heart was Studio Montclair, which she joined in its earliest days – nearly 28 years ago – and served with tireless passion and deep commitment, including decades on its Executive Board. It was Catherine’s own tender wish that a sale and fundraiser be held in her memory to benefit Studio Montclair, and this exhibition is a loving fulfillment of that wish. Through it all, her husband Merwin was by her side – her devoted partner and most steadfast champion.

A Master Pastelist of the Pastel Society of America and a founder of Viridian Print Studio, Catherine worked across pastel, oil, and monotype, exhibiting her paintings at museums, galleries, and international exhibitions throughout her career. Her commissioned landscapes entered the collections of Tiffany, AT&T, Exxon, The Nature Conservancy, and dozens of other corporate and private collectors around the world. She also gave generously as a teacher – for more than 40 years at the Montclair Art Museum School of Art, and for many years as Artist-in-Residence at Van Vleck Gardens – shaping the next generation of painters with the same warmth and rigor she brought to everything else in her life.

Selections From Artwork on Display at Leach Gallery