“ROE JAN WALK”: This painting by Katharine Dufault is featured in “Before the Rain,” on view March 27 through May 10 at the Present Day Club. An opening reception is on Friday, March 27 from 5 to 7 p.m.
The Present Day Club presents “Before the Rain,” an exhibition of recent landscape paintings by Katharine Dufault, on view March 27 through May 10. The works evoke the quiet, charged moments in nature just before a change in weather — when the air grows still and the land seems to hold its breath. Inspired by mountains, forests, and shifting seasons encountered on daily walks, the paintings explore the subtle atmosphere of landscape at the edge of transformation.
A public opening reception will be held on Friday, March 27, from 5 to 7 p.m.; all are welcome.
Working in oil, Dufault approaches painting as both meditation and exploration. Broad, colorful gestures of thinned paint move across the surface alongside finely observed details, creating landscapes that feel at once expansive and intimate. While rooted in real places, the paintings drift between direct experience and recollection, capturing the emotional atmosphere of wild landscapes rather than specific locations.
“I’m interested in the space between observation and memory,” said Dufault. “The paintings begin with landscapes I’ve seen and experienced, but they evolve through gesture and layering until they become something more atmospheric and interior.”
The works range in scale up to 40×30 inches, allowing space for both gestural movement and delicate detail. Layers of thinned paint are washed and brushed onto the surface, and at times sanded back, revealing subtle shifts of light and texture that echo the rhythms of the natural world.
The title “Before the Rain” recalls the artist’s childhood in England, where the weather often shaped daily life and a walk “before the rain” was a familiar phrase. The idea of that brief pause before a change in weather resonates with the atmosphere of the paintings.
Dufault is a British-born, New York Times-reviewed artist, curator, and educator. A multimedia painter working in oils, watercolor, encaustic, and printmaking, her practice explores landscape, memory, and the transformative potential of paint. She earned her degree in painting and literature from Columbia University, graduating with honors, following earlier studies in visual arts, graphic design, and photography at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, England.
Dufault has exhibited extensively, and her work is held in numerous corporate and private collections.
In addition to her studio practice, Dufault has curated more than a dozen exhibitions across New York and New England, advised nonprofit arts organizations, served on visual arts panels, and juried awards. In 2023, she joined the board of the Millay Arts Residency in Austerlitz, N.Y.
The Present Day Club is at 72 Stockton Street. Public viewings are on Fridays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., or call Skye Meau at (609) 924-1014 to make an appointment.