Seton Hill University’s Harlan Gallery will present “Standing in Place” an exhibit featuring recent landscapes by artist Peggy Lynn Cox April 21 to May 19 at the Seton Hill Arts Center, 205 W. Otterman St., Greensburg. An artist’s gallery talk will be held on April 21 from 3:30 to 4 p.m. with an opening reception following from 4 to 7 p.m. The talk, exhibit and reception are free and open to the public.

Peggy Lynn Cox says of “Standing in Place:” “Working on location is essential to my work.  It is only through direct encounters with nature that I can convey the energy and beauty that is revealed through shifting light. It becomes a race to respond to the changing colors and forms. Where the challenges are physical when working on location, the studio presents more intellectual hurdles in trying to maintain the energy and impulse that first sparked the idea. … This exhibit began as a sabbatical project to create work based on a favorite hillside near my home.  Technical and aesthetic challenges were to create paintings outside my comfort zone.  Early work was primarily about closed spaces and patterns found within dense woods.  At this point in my thirty-year career, I chose imagery that was “forbidden” because it was too pretty or banal. After three years of struggling with more open and deep pictorial spaces, the woods are still a favorite subject.”

Cox was born in Louisville, Ky. and graduated from the University of Louisville. She pursued graduate studies in painting and printmaking, (intaglio) receiving a Masters of Fine Art degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Her primary mentors at the University were landscape painter Neil Welliver and figurative painter Jack Beal. Both artists had strong stylistic influences that stayed with her paintings for several years.

During her three years in Philadelphia, she began teaching at a local art center and was also a teaching assistant for Penn’s drawing classes.  Cox received her first academic appointment with Indiana University, Northwest in Gary, Ind.  During her year in Indiana, Cox continued studies at the School of the Art Institute where she explored lithography. In 1985, Cox, received an appointment with Westminster College where she continues to teach as Professor of Art in painting, drawing, collage, and most recently fiber courses in felt and natural dyes.  

In 1991, Cox received a Fulbright grant to live and paint landscapes in Iceland for the summer. It was that experience that dramatically changed the direction of her art.  Subsequent grants from the American Scandinavian Foundation and Development grants from Westminster College funded two more summer trips to Iceland.  Cox exhibits both regionally and nationally, the most recent exhibit being a juried group exhibit “Threads” at the Annmarie Sculpture and Art Center in Maryland.

Harlan Gallery is open Monday through Thursday from 1 to 8 p.m.; Friday from 1 to 3 p.m.; Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m.; and by appointment. For more information, please contact Harlan Gallery Director Carol Brode at 724-830-1071 or brode@setonhill.edu.