MIDDLEBURY — The Jackson Gallery presents an exhibition of color photographs by Middlebury artist Eric Nelson, March 29-May 5. The display will feature images whose common themes are pattern, rhythm, and the interaction of color and light in nature. His sources are landscapes —large and small — that include trees, plants, bodies of water and geological formations. The images range from bold compositions of delicate flowers in close-up view to intricately patterned scenes of the forest and its floor, capturing the texture and subtle tones in each.
“I am particularly focused on revealing the record of growth, competition for survival, and decay and regeneration found everywhere in nature,” Nelson explained. “For me photographs almost always uncover details, hidden objects, and alignments that are not noticed at the outset but become, through processing and acceptance, an essential part of making and viewing photographs. These unanticipated aspects of producing a photograph give my images an element of surprise that enhances every intentional characteristic that I have for them.”
Nelson also works in the mediums of wood and watercolor. Retired from Middlebury College, he taught sculpture and drawing there for 33 years.  Most recently he exhibited at the Henry Sheldon Museum in Middlebury in a group photography show, the Courthouse Gallery in Lake George, N.Y., in a one-person sculpture show and the Fleming Museum of the University of Vermont in a group sculpture show. Other exhibitions of his sculpture have been installed in public sculpture parks at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va., Navy Pier in Chicago, and the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park in Lincoln, Mass.  He has been a visiting artist at the Edinburgh College of Art in Edinburgh, Scotland, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., and the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Vt.  Nelson has been awarded several residencies and has received awards and fellowships including two from the Vermont Council on the Arts.
The show at the Jackson Gallery will open with a reception for the artist on Friday, March 29, from 5-7 p.m. The exhibit will remain on display through May 5. The Jackson Gallery is located in the lower level of Town Hall Theater in Middlebury. Gallery hours are Monday through Saturday, 12-5 p.m., and an hour before any public events in the building. For more info call (802) 382-9222 or visit townhalltheater.org.