Opening Reception First Friday, December 6, 2019
Robert Heilman and Jean Zaun, two pillars of the local art community, hardly require an introduction. The pair of highly accomplished Lebanon County artists excel at the treatment and tonal rendering of light and shadows in their respective works in oil; Heilman and Zaun once shared an art studio in Quentin where they inspired and worked alongside each other. Since then, the pair have intermittently displayed their works together. For the months of December and January, their latest artistic achievements will be on view at Lebanon Picture Frame & Fine Art Gallery. Opening reception is First Friday, December 6th, from 5PM to 8PM.
Jean Zaun is an award-winning painter based in Fredericksburg, PA. Professionally trained with art degrees from Wesley College and Kutztown University, she once described the act of painting as a lifetime’s journey and considers the easel as her biggest teacher. Zaun presents her work as a meaningful visual dialogue, where inherent beauty could be observed, unobscured by the viewer’s inability to slow down. Zaun’s work adheres to a time-honored tradition of impressionistic paintings; she considers herself a privileged participant.
Robert Heilman is often considered a photo-realistic painter, though to the artist himself, his work is more about presence and substance, and less about technique. Much of his work in the past centered around the subject of nocturnal small town scenes, which exhibited the same quietness and intimacy as the contrasting pastoral landscapes. The focal points in Heilman’s work are the emotion and the essential qualities a particular setting provokes. Purposefully devoid of human figures, he does not care for social realism as a subject. Rather than injecting a narrative into his paintings, Heilman paints to provoke a response from his viewers.