Art Gallery Portsmouth NH | Visual Arts Gallery

DREAM DIARIES OF STRAWBERY BANKE
JULY 11 - AUGUST 6
works by Rebecca Klementovich

Reception / Meet the artist: Friday, August 4 / 5-8pm
Free and open to the public
Reception coincides with Art Round Town.

In honor of Portsmouth’s 400th year anniversary, 3S Artspace held an open call for submissions by artists living or working in Portsmouth today. There was no shortage of talent and creativity. We invite you to join us as we celebrate the extraordinary artists selected to exhibit in the Lobby Gallery in 2023. All exhibited works are available for purchase, with revenue supporting both the artists and 3S.

Artist Statement
Dream Diaries of Strawbery Banke - When I was eight, our school went to a field trip to Strawbery Banke. I fell in love with it— the gardens, the crowded turn of the century houses. It was such a beautiful escape. Now I live close by and I paint this amazing part of Portsmouth. Walking in Strawbery Banke is like floating in a dreamscape of the 17th century. Some days the air is filled with wood stove smoke and the sea air, just as it was back in the day.

These acrylic paintings use modern, bright colors to depict Strawbery Banke, giving it a modern edge. Strawbery Banke is the oldest neighborhood in New Hampshire to be settled by Europeans, and the earliest neighborhood remaining in the present-day city of Portsmouth. It features more than 37 restored buildings built between the 17th and 19th centuries in the colonial, Georgian, and Federal style architectures. The darkest colored house, The Sherburne House, is the oldest house on site. The buildings once clustered around a way of life in the beautiful city of Portsmouth.

Rebecca Klementovich Bio
Rebecca’s work unites abstract painting with semi-landscapes. She uses a unique, colorful palette to express nature, dropping the horizon line and turning landscapes into abstraction. Graduating from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, she specialized in fashion illustration. Rebecca was a textile designer and fashion art director for 22 years in the city. Her art career gave her a love of color and a strong design component in her paintings. Fashion illustration gave her the background for the gestural and bold color palettes of her landscapes and abstracts.

Rebecca lived in the Mount Washington area for many years. The mountains gave her a nostalgic and lyrical feeling for those landscapes. Collectively, these elements have produced these large, modern, unique fine art paintings. She now lives near Portsmouth, NH.