Carpenter Realtors and Branch Manager Rich Costello will present an exhibit of paintings by artist William Lawson through the end of February at their office gallery location 5636 East Washington Street (next door to Jockamo Upper Crust Pizza). Lawson, an Irvington resident since 2018, shows eleven paintings created over the past thirty years, including some loaned from local private collections and some that are available for purchase.
The works, mostly landscapes, showcase Lawson’s eye for spotting interesting compositions in color, form and light in his local environment. His views often fuse the urban, man-made and domestic with the natural elements of water, trees or sky. The geometrical lines of houses, streets and telephone poles are balanced by the chaotic forms of nature like trees and gardens, puddles reflecting sky and cobblestones faded pink from decades of sun.
His Sunny Alley – Woodruff Place, 2023, is an inconspicuous balance of primary hues with it brick alley, and two garages, one yellow, one blue.
The painting Lower Queen Anne, 2014 (pictured here) is from Lawson’s time spent in Washington last decade, and captures a sunny day in hilly Seattle. A VW bus parked slanting on a street before the steep stairs ascending the front of a quaint house, with colorful clothes drying on a line, and a few stalks of sweet corn growing in the front yard.
Crossing, 2003, is a study in harsh linearity – numerous poles and wires, signs and signal arms – windows, roof lines and fences. It even contains the brick ziggurat of a factory facade at the center of the picture. The composition is mostly a two-fold study of the wild blue yonder overhead, and the wild cramped hubbub below.
Also included is the small study, the knife painting in red and green, of a sunny alley scene. It is a work that appeared in the 100th Annual Hoosier Salon in 2025.
Also on display are works from Rich Costello’s collection of works by Frederick Polley that include graphite and pen and ink drawings, etchings, paintings and even a World War 2 poster by the Irvington Group artist.
The William Lawson exhibit continues through the end of the month.
Mark Diekhoff
Longtime Irvington resident and former art gallery owner whose writings on art can be seen at artworldinrvington.blogspot.com
