STOCKBRIDGE, MASS.- With great optimism, the Stockbridge Station Gallery has installed an art exhibition of the newest paintings by Ann Getsinger, which will run through July 12. The show title, Imaginarium, refers to places devoted to the cultivation of imagination, an exercise that Getsinger undertakes with one foot firmly planted. Einstein wrote that: "Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world." Getsinger uses her knowledge-her daily acknowledgment of beautiful things, her sense of place in familiar landscapes, her lifetime of training in the arts-to ground her paintings. But she uses her imagination to paint beyond the limits of knowledge, offering insight to her fanciful and expansive view of life and inviting viewers to access their own imaginative narrative.

This brilliant body of work broadens Getsinger's vision and demonstrates her deft touch with paint and brush. Detailed landscapes provide a sense of place, while varied objects offer tableaux into which viewers bring their own imaginative narrative. A resident of New Marlborough, MA since 1988, Getsinger feels truly alive and inspired in the Berkshires, as well as in mid-coast Maine where she has spent time all her life. This is evident in the intricately rendered, atmospherically rich natural settings of her paintings (also a testament to her many years as a traditional landscape painter).

Ann Getsinger paints a world both within and outside herself. The paintings are a place of meeting where her imagination coalesces with meticulously rendered objects and landscapes, resulting in thoughtful and beguiling tableaux. The pastiche of dream-like scenes and hyper-realist execution reflects life's integration of people and nature, past and present, and physical and metaphysical. The paintings are dynamic and bold compositions that reveal themselves in layers of exquisite detail, indicative of the way the artist experiences life-alert to the minutia of her environment and open to the infinity of her reveries. Careful looking is rewarded as objects in the foreground often give way to subsidiary narratives featuring flora and fauna.

Getsinger began painting what she terms "still-scapes" in the 1990s, integrating her landscape, still-life, and figurative training with her imagination. A resident of New Marlborough, MA, she feels truly alive and inspired in the Berkshires, as well as mid-coast Maine where she has spent time all her life. She works from memory on the landscapes she knows so well, freed by her deep-seated knowledge of both her surroundings and her craft to let her playfulness come through. She makes mental notes all the time, always observing and staying open to inspiration from any direction. Objects are set up in her studio, but the story of each painting evolves organically as the artist considers her place in the world.

Strong foregrounds confront the viewer while the backgrounds reveal themselves more slowly, adding to a sense of mystery. An otter with a piercing gaze is framed by a whirling violet sky, a purple cauliflower blooms from a corner while moody clouds blow the grass, antlers and a shell perch atop a bench surrounded by a turbulent garden of wildflowers , a dress washes ashore as swirling waves kiss unblemished sand. Getsinger's curious and surrealist combinations are anchored by flawless painting techniques in which color, line, form, and texture create dynamic compositions and verisimilitude creates believability. The careful details of the flowers and plants demonstrate Getsinger's love of botany (she is prone to study things like the plants that grow at the base of a waterfall or the intricacies of a swamp).

Getsinger studied at the Paier School of Art in New Haven, CT, and the San Francisco Art Institute before settling permanently in Western Massachusetts and studying with Sheldon Fink. Ann's paintings are in many private collections and have been exhibited in museums and galleries around the country.