By Joyce DeWallace, Contributing Writer
Grafton – Fluttering like a butterfly and flitting like a fairy, Allison Coelho Picone embodies the spirit she tries to capture in her award winning paintings.
“There is a magical tranquility in nature which connects mind, body and soul,” she explained.
The Grafton artist is currently hard at work on a series entitled, “Freedom of the Seasons – The Pace of Nature.” Her goal is to create multi-layered paintings that have a strong connection to natural material with the feel of stained glass. She uses translucent layers of acrylic paint mixed with alternating layers of pencil, India ink and mixed media to build texture, color vibrancy and depth, according to her website.
Using photos that have been manipulated along with other materials has allowed Picone to achieve an Impressionist feeling in her many layered works.
“Stained glass moves me,” she said. “In my childhood, we went to the South Congregational Church in Brockton, and I would stare at the stained glass windows all through the service. The colors were backlit and translucent and it made me happy just to look at them.”
Picone has always been an artist, scribbling with crayons at an early age. In junior high school, it was all about drawing faces.
“I drew everyone, all my friends in art class, my family, and celebrities like singer Corey Hart and movie star Tom Cruise from ‘Top Gun,’” she recalled.
In high school, she was selected to attend an eight-week art course in Boston, and won a prestigious Boston Globe award. She earned two bachelor of fine arts degrees with high honors, the first in illustration, and the second in painting with a concentration in computer animation from the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth.
Once her two children, Angelina, now 14, and Joseph, now 12, started school, Picone returned to her dream of painting. Both children have inherited their mother’s talent, and serve as her evaluators and provide feedback.
“The kids really help me with my painting,” Picone said. “My daughter is an amazing critic and she’s a wonderful artist herself, as well as a musician. My son is also very talented and tells me which version of a painting he likes better, and recently told me that he liked one painting better yesterday. I look to both of them and my husband Bill for their insights.”
Along the way, Picone has received much praise and many awards. She has exhibited at the Hope Gallery and the Alta Luna Gallery in Bristol, R.I., at ArtsWorcester and Unum in Worcester, and with Manhattan Arts International in New York. Her painting, “Ancient Seeds” was chosen for the “Celebrate the Healing Power of Art” juried exhibition. In 2013, she had a solo show at the Parson House Gallery in Assonet. The theme for that exhibit was, “Renewal of Spirit: Queen Anne’s Lace and Other Works.”
Her ongoing series about the abundant wildflower dates back to early childhood.
“Mom, my sister and I would walk down this little country road in Middleboro, and we would pick bouquets of Queen Ann’s Lace. Then we’d place them in vases of colored water and by the next day, they would pick up various tints. So I’ve always drawn them. They look like exploding fireworks,” said Picone.
She added that she has always felt that the wildflower is a universal theme of life and death, the afterlife, and healing from the loss of a loved one.
Picone sells her work mostly by word of mouth. She holds what she described as “little shows.” She handles commissions for clients and works with Facebook and website contacts. She has an online store at Etsy.com. Locally, her work is displayed at the Escape Salon, 76 Otis St., and A Basic Knead Massage and Body Work, 45 Lyman St., in Westborough, and sells notecards and prints at the Grafton Country Store in Grafton Common.
For more information, visit her website, www.allisonpicone.com.
