Fanfare: Featuring Works by John Thompson

Berkshire Botanical Garden presents “Fanfare,” an art exhibition, from Saturday, Nov. 5 through Sunday, Nov 27 (with a reception scheduled for Friday, Nov. 11, from 4 to 6 p.m.). Featuring works by John Thompson, “Fanfare” will exhibit in the Garden’s Center House Leonhardt Galleries. 

“The basis for my work is landscapes where I choose specific moments and small elements as my focus,” said Thompson, based in Waltham, Mass., and Harpswell, Maine. “These intimate observations are often fleeting glimpses of a pond or a garden. The immense variety of what we may observe in nature I find endlessly fascinating.

“The simple occurrence — the stray stick fallen across a background of decaying ferns or the pattern of leaves in a stream — can lead to a series of prints or paintings. In making work, I begin with the simple observing, often with a sketch or small painting. In taking those fleeting images back to my studio, as recall fades, imagination takes over and the images begin to change.”

Thompson said, “Making art has become a source of quiet refuge in these turbulent times. I am comforted by being able to draw on the landscape to replenish a sense of balance and control in life. My observation and invention on the borrowed landscape renews and replenishes.”

Thompson has taught at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Framingham State University, The Art and Innovation Center in Weston, Mass., the Washington Art Association in Washington, Conn., and many other workshops around the country. He works with master printers Peter and James Pettengill in Hinsdale, N.H., and Susan Oehme at Oehme Graphics in Steamboat Springs, Colo. He serves on several boards of art and educational institutions.  

​Recent showings include Adelson Galleries, New York and Palm Beach; Childs Gallery, Boston; Washington Art Association, Washington, Conn.; Atrium Art Gallery, Charleston, S.C.; Webster and Company, Boston; MassArt Auction Live, Boston; Urban Oasis Giveaway, HGTV, Boston; Danforth Art, Framingham, Mass.; Arsenal Center for the Arts, Watertown, Mass.; Boston Printmakers at Wellesley College, Wellesley, Mass.; Thompson Gallery at the Cambridge School of Weston, Weston, Mass.; Sunshine Museum, Beijing, China; Two Lines Gallery, Beijing, China; Bentley College, Waltham, Mass.; Vitale, Caturano & Co, Charleston, Mass.; and many solo and group shows nationally and internationally.  

His work is in numerous private collections and many public collections, including Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston; Husk Restaurants, Charleston, S.C., Nashville, Tenn. and Savannah, Ga.; Spaulding Rehabilitation Center, Boston; Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston; Mount Auburn Hospital, Cambridge, Mass.; Prezza, Boston; and UUA Churches in the Boston area.  

Thompson holds degrees from Syracuse University (BFA), University of Wisconsin-Madison (MA), Babson College (MBA), and Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MFA).  

Gallery hours for “Fanfare” are 10 to 4 p.m. on Tuesdays through Fridays (Mondays, by appointment) and 11 to 3 p.m. on weekends through Nov. 27.