Artists convey ‘Joy and Peace’ in show of abstract works

One works in muted tones, hoping her paintings evoke feelings of comfort and peace.

The other strives to convey unbridled joy in her pieces, using vibrant colors and dynamic designs. 

What do they have in common? 

Jill Goldman-Callahan and Christiane Corcelle work in studios at The Umbrella Arts Center. They call themselves “spontaneous” artists, beginning a painting and seeing where it takes them. 

Both find inspiration in nature and incorporate unusual elements — from walnut oil and sand for Goldman-Callahan to scraps of fabric for Corcelle — in their creations. And both have been widely exhibited. That “we like and respect each other’s work,” Corcelle says, led to them proposing a joint show. 

“We feel it is an ideal pairing,” says Goldman-Callahan. 

“Joy and Peace,” which opened in the Allie Kussin Gallery at The Umbrella on September 12, showcases their works of contemporary abstraction. It runs through December 17.

‘Faith in a Seed’

Goldman-Callahan is a former middle school arts teacher in Wellesley who earned a bachelor’s degree in fine art and anthropology at Bennington College and a master’s degree in art therapy from Lesley University. She has worked in psychiatric hospital settings and regards art, she says, “as emotionally healing and personal.” 

She has been painting since she was a child in Philadelphia, where a teacher took note of her talent and pulled her out of an elementary school class to work on a mural at a children’s hospital. 

In Goldman-Callahan’s studio, there are bowls of seed pods and other woodland treasures she collects on her walks in Acton. She regards seeds “as a metaphor for the future,” and is fascinated by the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway, “where our global seeds are protected from extinction.” Images of seeds and pods often make their way into her paintings. 

“There is a beauty and perfection in them,” she says, adding that she draws inspiration from Henry David Thoreau’s research and writing project, “Faith in a Seed.” 

“My paintings are process-oriented rather than product-oriented,” says Goldman-Callahan, who is teaching a class at The Umbrella this fall. “When I begin, I don’t know what will happen. Something takes over, like a storm coming through me.” 

The artist says she rarely employs a brush while working, instead preferring to wield squeegees to glide, push, pull, and layer paint. Goldman-Callahan, who once worked as a pastry chef, loves to apply rich paint that has the consistency of buttercream. She creates pigments from sources such as crushed coffee beans and powder from hammered desert stones. 

Art runs in Goldman-Callahan’s family. Her husband, Bob Callahan, is a ceramicist, and one of her two sons teaches art at Middlesex School. 

Painting as ‘a playground’

Corcelle is a French-American mixed media artist who has been drawn to “making things by hand” since childhood, working with ceramics, weaving, oil painting, sewing, and printmaking. 

Originally trained as a landscape architect before joining the French Peace Corps and serving in Africa, she later lived in several countries across Africa and Asia — experiences that she says continue to inform her “sensitivity to pattern, color, and material.” 

Corcelle paints with bright acrylics that she applies in various ways — with strings dipped in paint and splashed across the canvas, and with sandpaper, feathers, sticks, and collage. She takes inspiration from “everything,” including walking in Great Meadows, where she observes the landscape that she abstracts on her canvases. 

“I want to paint what I feel, not what I see,” says the artist, who is also a Reiki master. “I’ve always been joyful and colorful.” 

Even a simple salad can inspire Corcelle, who shows a visitor a painting in which representations of purplish red radicchio, beets, and rosy ham slices are discernible. 

Her studio is awash in bright colors and includes a display of her grandchildren’s art on a door and orderly piles of fabric and paper pieces, bottles of brushes, and handmade implements, and jars of pigments.

“Painting is a playground,” says Corcelle. “It’s a space for expression and joy. When people say my art makes them smile, I like that,” she adds, “as it’s what I feel, too.” 

“Joy and Peace” runs until December 17 at The Umbrella, 40 Stow Street. The gallery is open from 10 a.m.-9 p.m. seven days a week. An opening reception is on September 18 from 6-8 p.m., with RSVPs appreciated. An artist talk is scheduled for October 25. Visit theumbrellaarts.org for more information.