2024 Small Works Exhibit at Sawmill River Arts

This piece, titled Effervescence, is in the Small Works exhibit February 4–26 at Sawmill River Arts in Montague, Massachusetts. There’s an opening reception Sunday, February 4, 1–4 pm. Stop by if you’re in the area! I plan to be there, probably towards the beginning of the afternoon. The gallery is located next to the Montague Bookmill, at 440 Greenfield Road.

For this daily embroidery piece that I made last year, I aimed to create a joyful, playful image by using a “chance and choice” approach. I began by selecting six colors of pearl cotton. I chose one color at random each day to stitch with. That was the “chance” element of the piece.

The “choice” elements were what stitch to use each day and how dense. The constant: the shapes were circles only.

I entered Effervescence into this show because I thought we can all use a bit of joy in dreary February. The show continues through February 26 at Sawmill River Arts, 440 Greenfield Road, Montague, Massachusetts. Gallery hours are Thursday–Monday, 11 am to 5 pm.

Show Announcement: "Revelry" at Northampton Center for the Arts

Bonnie Sennott, A Leaf-Sized Space, 2017, pearl cotton and linen, 10 inches by 10 inches

“Revelry” at the Northampton Center for the Arts opens Friday, April 14, with a reception from 5 to 8 pm during the monthly Arts Night Out. My embroidery shown here, A Leaf-Sized Space, is among the artworks by more than 35 local artists in the show. The exhibit is a fundraiser, with half of all sales going to support the center, located at 33 Hawley in Northampton, Massachusetts.

A Leaf-Sized Space is part of a series of negative space embroideries called “Presence/Absence.” For the project, I used found objects—in this case, an oak leaf picked up during a walk—as a starting point for freeform embroidery exploring the beauty of ordinary, lost, or overlooked objects. I surrounded the leaf with a rich mix of embroidery stitches and spots of fall color as a way of celebrating its brief but beautiful appearance in this world. The stitches hold the leaf aloft and give it—or rather, its absence—a second life.

Sawmill River Arts Gallery Small Works Exhibit

Two of my “stones and water” abstract watercolors will be included in the upcoming Small Works Exhibit and Sale at Sawmill River Arts Gallery in Montague, Massachusetts. An opening reception will be held Sunday, February 5, 1-4 pm.

Bonnie Sennott, Stones and Water #23, watercolor on paper, 2022

The two watercolors in this show are part of a 100-day project I began in 2022. For my project, I created small abstract watercolors on the theme of “stones and water,” inspired by my frequent walks along trails at Amethyst Brook and Mill River in Amherst. As with my embroidery work, the “stones and water” watercolors were improvisational, developed in layers day by day.

Sawmill River Arts, at 440 Greenfield Road in Montague, MA, is part of the Montague Bookmill complex, a former mill overlooking the Sawmill River housing the gallery, a used bookstore, cafe, record store, and restaurant. The show continues through February 27; gallery hours are Thursday-Monday, 11 am-5 pm.

Bonnie Sennott, Stones and Water #10, watercolor on paper, 2022

Easthampton City Arts Gallery Show Continues through September 30

This Saturday, September 17, I’ll be at Easthampton City Arts Gallery from 10 am to noon, working on a new piece. I’ll be happy to answer questions about my process and work, so please stop by to chat! I’ll also be bringing a “community hoop,” prethreaded needles, and an embroidery stitch handout, so you can try your hand at stitching if you’d like.

My solo show of abstract embroidery and watercolors continues through September 30 at Easthampton City Arts Gallery, 43 Main Street, Easthampton, Massachusetts. Gallery hours are Wednesdays and Fridays, noon–2 pm, and Saturday, September 17, 10 am–noon. More information

Shown here is Daily Embroidery (56 Days), a negative space embroidery that I completed in August.

Exhibition Announcement: Bonnie Sennott at Easthampton City Arts Gallery

Show announcement: In September, I'll exhibit my abstract embroidery and watercolors at the Easthampton City Arts Gallery, located at 43 Main Street in Easthampton. The opening reception, on Friday, September 2, 5-8 pm, coincides with Easthampton's monthly Art Walk. The show continues through September 30.

ECA Gallery has limited weekday hours (see below), but I will be gallery sitting on Saturday, September 17, 10 am–noon. I'll be working on a new piece while I'm there on the 17th and will be glad to answer questions about my process.

More details below. I hope you can make it!

Bonnie

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Bonnie Sennott: Abstract Embroidery and Watercolors

An exhibition of recent abstract embroidery work and watercolors by Amherst artist Bonnie Sennott will be held September 2–30 at Easthampton City Arts Gallery, 43 Main Street, Easthampton, Massachusetts, with an opening reception on Friday, September 2, 5–8 pm. Hours: Wednesdays and Fridays, noon–2 pm, and Saturday, September 17, 10 am–noon.

Among the works shown will be A Year in Thread and Daily Thread, Sennott's two yearlong stitch journals, for which she embroidered every day using colors observed in nature. This show will be the first time these two projects have been exhibited together. Also on view: recent negative space embroideries exploring absence, loss, and the passing of time and recent abstract watercolors on the theme of "stones and water." 

Sennott has shown her work locally in solo and group exhibitions at Northampton’s Center for the Arts, the Hosmer Gallery at Northampton's Forbes Library (2019, 2022), the Burnett Gallery/Jones Library in Amherst, Gallery A3, and #LOCAL Gallery. Her work has also been exhibited in shows at the Wistariahurst Museum, the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, and the Fitchburg Art Museum. A former member of Kingston Gallery in Boston, she holds an MFA from the University of Chicago.

Gallery A3 Seventh Annual Juried Show

The seventh annual juried show at Gallery A3, located in downtown Amherst, Massachusetts, includes one of my recent “stones and water” watercolors. The show opens with a reception on Thursday, August 4, 5–8 pm, and continues through August 27.

Stones and Water 6, watercolor on paper, 2022, by Bonnie Sennott

This piece is one of 25 that I painted during a 100-Day creative project launched by the Isolation Journals and author Suleika Jaouad. From April 1 through July 9, 2022, I worked each day on a small abstract watercolor inspired by my walks on trails around Amethyst Brook and the Mill River in Amherst. I posted many in-progress photos on my art Instagram (see the stones&water Stories highlight).

Rather than re-create the appearance of stones and water, I used the experience of observing water flowing over and around stones as a jumping-off point for creative play. The soothing sound of water, the infinite variety of the shapes and sizes of stones, and the ever-changing play of light—I kept all of these in mind as I began painting. As each piece developed in its own particular way, the journey of painting became less about literal stones and water and more about a search for balance and harmony.

I love that watercolors can be built in layers, by painting a bit each day and contemplating where you’ve gone before going further. In this way, they’re a lot like my embroidery work. They demand patience and a light touch, because moving ahead too quickly, making rushed decisions and overworking the image, can ruin a piece. I found it best to work slowly and allow the watercolors to “do their thing”—to let them surprise and delight me.

The Seventh Annual Juried Show at Gallery A3 includes work in a variety of media by 41 area artists. The gallery is located at 28 Amity Street in Amherst (between Amherst Coffee and Amherst Cinema). Summer hours are 3–8 pm Thursday–Sunday. See the Gallery A3 website for more about the show and the juror, Daniel Kojo Schrade.

Shop Update: Watercolors

I’ve begun listing some of this year’s “stones and water” watercolors in my Etsy shop. They’re ready for framing in white, acid-free window mats. Six are available now, with more coming soon.

I began painting these watercolors as part of a 100-day creative project launched on April 1, 2022 by Suleika Jaouad (author of Between Two Kingdoms) and the Isolation Journals, a weekly journal that Jaouad began in 2020 in response to the pandemic. For my project, I painted small abstract watercolors on the theme of “stones and water” inspired by walks along trails at Amethyst Brook and the Mill River, near my home in Amherst, Massachusetts. As with my embroidery work, the watercolors are improvisational, developed in layers day by day. The 100-day project ended on July 9, but my “stones and water” work continues.

Bonnie Sennott, Stones and Water No. 5, watercolor on paper, 2022

Exhibition news: Stones and Water No. 6 will be exhibited in the 7th Annual Juried Show at Gallery A3 in Amherst, Massachusetts. Show dates: August 5-27. Opening reception: Thursday, August 4, 5-8 pm.

In September, I’ll be having a solo show of my abstract embroidery work and watercolors at ECA Gallery, Easthampton City Arts, in Easthampton, Massachusetts. More about it soon!

LINKS
Etsy Shop
Instagram

Upcoming Show: Bonnie Sennott at Hosmer Gallery

Greetings! I'm so excited to share that, after a delay of two years due to the pandemic, my show at the Forbes Library's Hosmer Gallery is finally happening. The reception will be Saturday, June 4, 2 - 4 pm, and the show continues through June 29. Details below. I hope you can make it!  

Bonnie

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Bonnie Sennott: Abstract Embroidery and Watercolors

An exhibition of recent abstract embroidery work and watercolors by Amherst artist Bonnie Sennott will be held June 2–29 at the Hosmer Gallery in Northampton, Massachusetts, with an opening reception on Saturday, June 4, 2 - 4 pm. 

Among the works shown is Daily Thread, a yearlong project for which she embroidered every day using colors observed in nature, and several of her negative space embroideries exploring absence, loss, and the passing of time. She will also show abstract watercolors on the theme of "stones and water," which she is creating in 2022 as part of the "100 days of creative acts" project organized by author Suleika Jaouad and the Isolation Journals.

Sennott has shown her work locally in solo and group exhibitions at Northampton’s Center for the Arts, the Burnett Gallery/Jones Library in Amherst, Gallery A3, and #LOCAL Gallery. Her work has also been exhibited in shows at the Wistariahurst Museum, the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, and the Fitchburg Art Museum. A former member of Kingston Gallery in Boston, she holds an MFA from the University of Chicago.

Also on view during June: landscape paintings by Stephanie Vignone.

The Hosmer Gallery is located on the second floor of the Forbes Library at 20 West Street in downtown Northampton. Hours are Monday - Thursday, 10 am - 8 pm; Friday and Saturday, 10 am - 6 pm.  

Her Light Escape (43 Days)

On this last day of summer, I thought I’d share a piece I worked on between May and August. Her Light Escape (43 Days) is one of my negative space embroideries.

For this piece, I used a circle template and stitched around randomly placed circles of varying sizes, using Valdani pearl cottons mostly in colors of the flowers I grow in my deck container garden. As always, the garden—which I dub the “Hummingbird Cafe”—exists to feed the local hummingbirds, which arrive in May and leave in September. I’m so blessed to be able to watch (and hear) these tiny visitors all summer.

As with my other abstract embroideries, the composition was not planned in advance but developed bit by bit as I worked. I used mostly seed stitches, layered over and around patches of white running stitch, with a few spots of satin stitch here and there. None of the circles is stitched completely around. Ephemerality—everything arriving and leaving, here only momentarily—is the theme.

These details let you see the stitches more closely, as well as the sides of the piece. I love exploring how much can be done with a limited number of stitches. Seed stitch and running stitch are so simple, yet yield much variety just through varying the size of the stitches and how densely they’re placed.

The title comes from a poem by Emily Dickinson about summer’s end and the passing of time:

As imperceptibly as Grief
The Summer lapsed away—
Too imperceptible at last
To seem like Perfidy—
A Quietness distilled
As Twilight long begun,
Or Nature spending with herself
Sequestered Afternoon—

The Dusk drew earlier in—
The Morning foreign shone—
A courteous, yet harrowing Grace,
As Guest, that would be gone—
And thus, without a Wing
Or service of a Keel
Our Summer made her light escape
Into the Beautiful.

On this last day of summer, I think of all that’s come and gone over the past few months. I think of the hummingbirds, those quick little bits of magic. What a delight they are! I feel sad that summer is ending, but I’m so grateful to have once again witnessed the daily, amazing parade of beauty.

Progress Report: A New Negative Space Embroidery

A few weeks ago, I began a new piece using a limited palette of Valdani threads and linen dyed with walnuts from the tree out back. I’m continuing my explorations of negative space embroidery, using a circle template.

So far, I’m employing just two stitches—the “irregular” running stitch that I absolutely love, and here and there small amounts of satin stitch. As usual, I’m improvising the composition as I go.

Now that I’ve spent some time with it, I am thinking I will leave the center of this piece mostly empty. The stitching will cluster around the edges. A theme of keeping safe, staying close to the sides like a new swimmer, of holding on to things known and dear is emerging. Maybe I’m influenced by the uncertainty of life during this pandemic? I don’t know. I think we all have times when “keeping to the sides” is just what we most need. There’s a time for adventuring and a time for staying still.

Anyway, here are a few photos of the piece in progress. The purple that you see is from a disappearing ink pen. It disappears with time and also easily washes out.

I’ll post again soon about the negative space embroidery that I finished last month. I just need to stretch it and take photos. Until then, I hope you’re well and enjoying the transition between seasons.

If you’d like to see progress photos more frequently, please join me on Instagram.