Bovina Bicentennial Art Project, part 4

 

As part of the Town of Bovina’s Bicentennial Celebration, Brooke Alderson enlisted a group of ten local artists to create paintings of Bovina Landmarks. The artists were invited to paint their own interpretations of photographs of different Bovina buildings that are no longer in existence or have been altered. The resulting ten paintings were mounted on easels by Brooke and Scott Hill and were displayed throughout the hamlet during the Celebration at the site where the original structure stood (or still stands).

Over the next few months, I will be doing a series of entries highlighting the buildings and the paintings. The paintings are on display at the Bovina Public Library, where you can order prints of any that catch your fancy for $80, all proceeds going to the library. And stay tuned for an auction of the original works being planned for this fall. 

Boyd Place, painted by Lizbeth Firmin

It is not clear when this house was built, but likely in the 1840s or 1850s. It was owned by James Gill and later by William Gladstone. For many years, it was owned by the Boyd family, starting with Andrew and Ellen Boyd. Ellen lived in the house after the death of her husband in 1879. After Ellen’s death in 1893, the house was rented out. In the 1890s at one point, a gentleman named Samuel Ingles ran a barber shop there. The house was sold in 1913 by Ellen’s grandson, Andrew J. Boyd, to newlyweds John and Helena Hilson. They started the process to build a new home behind the Boyd house, intending to demolish it. They had barely moved out of the house into rooms nearby and arranged for the house’s demolition, when on June 6, 1916, the house burned down. The local hook and ladder company were meeting not far away and got to the fire quickly but focused mainly on ensuring adjoining properties did not suffer the same fate. By January 1917, John and Helena were living in their new home. 

Lisbeth Firmin is a contemporary American realist known for her urban landscapes. For over five decades her work has been in hundreds of solo and group show across the country and internationally. Honors and awards include inclusion in” “New Prints 2018/Winter, IPCNY, “2017 North American Print Biennial”, 2017  solo exhibition at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, a 2017 Printmaking Residency @ Scuola Internazionale di Grafica, Venice, Italy, Printmaking Residency  @ Tides Institute in Eastport ME (2016), a NYFA Fellowship (2007), Pollock-Krasner Grant (1999), full fellowships to the MacDowell Colony, National Seashore Residency, the Vermont Studio Center and Saltonstall Arts Colony. Her paintings and prints are in several public collections including the New York Historical Society, Provincetown Art Association & Museum, Munson Williams Procter Arts Institute, Arnot Museum, Tides Institute and Museum of Art, Fleming Museum, University of Texas, Cape Cod Museum, and Hofstra University. Firmin moved from downtown NYC in 2000 to a small village in upstate NY, where she paints every day.