Bucolic Boundaries

Paintings of natural and man-made boundaries.

Solo Exhibition
December 2 - 20, 2025

ARTIST STATEMENT

For the past ten years, the focus of my work was city scenes and portraits.  But that changed during the summer of 2024 when I rented a beautiful old farmhouse in Litchfield, Connecticut.  It was there on the property that I found my new inspiration: waterfalls.  I wanted my upcoming exhibit to be a compilation of waterfalls in all seasons.  That was my plan, but it was interrupted by a trip to the French countryside in the department of Charente.  

My husband and I spent three weeks in a renovated bastide in the rural village of Champagne-Vigny.  We were surrounded by vineyards and fields of wheat and young green shoots of sunflowers.  Everywhere I looked there was green and gold and ochre beneath the ever-changing skies. Blue, purple, pink, orange, and gray, the colors changing depending on the weather or time of day, subtly altering the landscape.  It was a patchwork quilt of color and design.

I spent my days in the fields making small studies in gouache and watercolor.  In the vanishing light, when I could no longer work outside, I would go inside to finish them while my husband was happily playing the piano in our shared space.  The days were sublime.  I finished about 15 works on paper before our departure and was eager to return to my studio to recreate these images with oil on canvas.

The oil paintings presented in this show are painted from the gouache studies and not from photographs, which allowed me to be less realistic and more expressive in my approach.  I have happily spent many, many hours compiling this body of work, and as I looked at all my finished pieces, I realized the landscape is characterized by boundaries, whether they be placed by humans or nature.  Thus… the title of my show: Bucolic Boundaries.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                         
Contact: juliaeisenlester@yahoo.com
Noho/M55 Gallery: 917-675-6884

November 7, 2025

 JULIA EISEN-LESTER SOLO EXHIBITION
OPENS DECEMBER 2, 2025
Noho/M55 Gallery in Chelsea
548 W. 28th St., Suite 634
New York, NY 10001

Julia Eisen-Lester’s solo exhibition of recent paintings, BUCOLIC BOUNDARIES, invites you to immerse yourself in the French countryside.  It will open at the Noho/M55 Gallery in Chelsea on Tuesday, December 2nd, and run until Saturday, December 20th.  An Opening Reception will be held on Thursday, December 4th from 5-8 pm, and there will be a Closing Reception on Saturday, December 20th from 5-8 pm. 

For other viewing options, gallery hours are Tuesday-Saturday, 11am-6pm, and for more information, go to https://www.55mercerstreetgallery.com/events/julia-eisen-lester-bucolic-boundaries/ 

This New York based artist will be exhibiting a newly inspired series of works.  “Bucolic Boundaries” includes the abundance of work that mostly grew out of her weeks in the French countryside in June, 2025.  “Everywhere I looked,”  she writes,  “there was green and gold and ochre under skies of blues or grays or purples, pinks and oranges, the colors changing depending on the weather or time of day, subtly altering the landscape.  It was a patchwork quilt of color and design.”

While Eisen-Lester’s first New York City solo show featured work filled with the vibrancy and exuberance of city life, and her second, “Interlude: A Pause in Time”,  focused on stillness and a sense of peace, “Bucolic Boundaries” draws the viewer into the natural world in its many faces and moods.  While no people are depicted in these paintings, these cultivated landscapes, fields, rivers, even small villages, are a vibrant and moving aspect of the world we all inhabit.

For this exhibition, Eisen-Lester worked primarily “en plein air.”  Rather than photographing, she painted small gouache studies which she then used as reference for her larger canvases in oil. In this way, she has been able to use her paint in a more expressive manner. 

The oils, in various sizes, will be on view, as well as the original gouache studies.  In addition, several canvases depicting natural scenes and boundaries in other locations will be seen.