For the past month, several ‘pop-up’ art shows have taken place at the Milton Train Station where a number of local artists have presented their work. Last week was the third and final show for the 2022 season.

Mary Ellen Sinclair has been working with fiber for about 30 years, starting out by weaving on a loom that helped her to understand the structure of fabric. She calls her initial fabric art ‘realistic embroideries’ and later, after listening to a professor, “I started experimenting by using fabric as paint. I have different mediums to dip the fabric in or to brush it on to preserve it.”

The Milton artist recalls her earliest work was the size of a postage stamp and today that has morphed into works that may be as large as 5ft by 5ft.

William Noonan presented a broad spectrum of his art at the show. He said in these works he used oil paint, with some on paper, board or canvas.

In choosing the subject of his work, Noonan said he goes through phases.

“Sometimes it’s figures and sometimes it’s still life, but I usually work on a theme for a few months,” he said.

Noonan said painting has always been a part of his life, “from before I can remember.”

Noonan studied art at SUNY Purchase and then worked for the Village Voice doing pre-press production. He now lives in the Town of Newburgh, right on the border of Marlboro.

“I am happy to be a part of this new community of artists,” he said. “We get together once a month for a meeting to plan things out and talk about our goals for the next studio tour next spring on Mother’s Day weekend.” The tour is called MOST, an acronym for Marlborough Open Studio Tour.

Cori Appler brought several of her acrylic paintings of local Hudson River scenes. Her ‘Bannerman Island’ piece is a view from her boat, “right in front of it.” She became interested in the subject after reading about Bannerman, attending an event at the library and taking a tour of the island.

Appler has been painting all her life. She graduated from the College of St. Rose in Albany with a concentration in painting and a Major in Art Education. She presently teaches art at the Arlington High School.

Cori said attending to her own paintings is “fun” She works from photographs that she has taken in the area.

When asked how an artist knows when a painting is finished, she laughs, saying, “You actually don’t ever know you’re done. You just get to a point where you can’t work on it anymore, that’s it and you stop.”

Photographer Vivian Lanzarone exhibited a few of her photos of the Hudson River. One in particular shows the southern pier at the Milton Landing before it was completely rebuilt.

“They were shot in 2015 before anything,” she said. “It was a really icy, icy winter but on that particular day is was 70 degrees and the ice was just breaking and floating in the river and the sun was shining; it was so beautiful. I literally went home and got my camera.”

Lanzarone calls this series, “Faces, because you can see faces in the reflections of the water.”

Lanzarone said the exhibit coincided with a cruise ship that was docked at the southern pier.

“A bunch of artists had sales, so it was exciting,” she said.

Fine art furniture maker Veronica Evanega helped to start these pop up exhibits.

“This was something that we were looking at for awhile to host more shows during the year,” she said. “We have a few new artists and a few of the other artists.”

Evanega said once she learned that cruise ships were coming to Milton, she thought the train station would be a perfect location for art shows.

“I wanted to help support the town and have a little bit more of our cultural presence here,” she said. “It’s a beautiful space and I’m sure this will be very popular.”

Jerry Wein said timing the art show with the arrival of a cruise ship was part of the plan.

“I know that people think of Marlborough for agricultural excellence and for wineries, breweries and the Falcon music venue but we’ve never had a show together with our local artists so let’s do something together and let’s do it with our new cruise visitors,” he said. “We put it together rather quickly and the town was very supportive with the space and I’m very happy,”

Wein gave special thanks to Locust Grove Brewery for providing refreshments at each of the art shows.

“Their craft ciders were much appreciated by both the artists and our many guests,” he said.