Close Encounters with the Cubist Landscape
artworks by Herm Freeman

Artist Closing Reception: Sunday November 1, 2026, 3 to 6 pm

BRIGHTWORKS GALLERY, 38 Rusling Place, Bridgeport, CT 06604

MAP to Gallery location: https://www.google.com/maps/place/38+Rusling+Pl,+Bridgeport,+CT+06604/@41.1798964,-73.2153363,17z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x89e80e44528da
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CO-CURATED by JOHN ANTHONY BRIGHT Brightworks Gallery john.works101@gmail.com
and JOHNES RUTA AzothGallery.com azothgallery@comcast.net

Herm Freeman - Bucks County, PA - acrylic on canvas - 38" x 32"

Herm Freeman Artist Statement

"I'm usually chasing Cezanne and his incredible landscape mtifs. If I could, I'd live in those paintings." Years ago, I travelled through France, looking to stand in the painter's shoes of some of my heroes...

As I stood in awe and gazed out into Cezanne's Arc Valley with its view of Mount St. Victoire, I had a epiphany of sorts: this mountain ! -- this magic, historical mountain... so still, so present, so famous, so THERE ... SO WHAT ? This was not going to change anything! ... and then I realized that at that very moment of recognition -- it was I who had changed! And that's art for you... and that was enough for me. I paint for the changes that art makes in my life.

"Seeking a motif for my painting, I wander the rounded hills and valleys of nearby Connecticut, where I brake for the landscapes and the beautiful old farmhouses…with their dated markers on them. These plaques are magical and evocative of a different time.

My landscape painting has been inspired by Cezanne, Soutine and the hillside villages of the south of France, but these days it’s Connecticut that shows up when I get back to the studio. I’m no longer so sure where my villages come from, but that seems to be the point: I let the paint direct me to where it wants to go; it leads and I follow.

I often think I’d like to live in one of those landscapes, but those imaginary places are lost in another time. If I'm at the studio and the questions begin" "Is landscape about the place, or is it about the paint?" Well, it usually a 'crazy quilt' about the place by way of the paint. I love way unexpected shapes open me up to possibilities; anything can happen in nature, and the landscape invokes a wide variety of emotions.

I know this, that our landscape, whether real or imagined, is our connection to the world. What I express about landscape (colors, shapes, and the surface of the paintings) is not just about how my painted world might look, but a place where I want to be connected.

Artist Bio

Born in 1948 in Brooklyn, NY, Herm Freeman earned a BA from Queens College (CUNY) in 1969, and an MFA in Painting from Indiana University in 1971. He studied painting with major artists like Fairfield Porter, George McNeil, James Brooks, James McGarrell, and Richard Serra. Freeman has been living and teaching art in Connecticut since 1973, and has exhibited for over 40 years.

Herm mainteianed a studio at 305 Knowlton Street, in Bridgeport for 14 years. and now works from his home studio. Herm continues to exhibit and sell paintings primarily in the NYC are and New England.

The Artist on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hermfreeman/