Honorable Mention
Louis Guarnaccia
Low Tide (oil, 36x24)The law of opposites—in this case, tightly painted areas set against more abstract shapes—is what lies at the heart of Louis Guarnaccia's Low Tide. The painting is essentially a portrait of an old, handmade dory. "But the real reason for this painting is the wonderfully abstract reflections in the puddles around the boat," he says.
Avoiding preliminary studies, the Nantucket, Massachusetts, artist tones his canvases with terra rosa (an earth pigment similar to burnt sienna), seals them with varnish, and then does a vine charcoal drawing to get the basic shapes. "From there, I start mixing glazes of thin pigment to build up my color," he says. "I start with middle values, then I glaze darker and scumble lighter, holding back my darkest darks and my lightest lights until the last couple of hours of the painting. The further I go in the painting, the less medium I use. By the end of the painting, it's just pure, thick paint."

Artists' Magazine, 2001

Louis Guarnaccia: "Sugar Maple" — A.A.N.
Guarnaccia has made an impression with stand out marine paintings, ranging from straight on portraits of large sailboats to still-life closeups of the rigging to small boats stranded onshore by the tide. This canvas takes you far from the ocean, to the trunk of a single tree so deep in the north woods that only a few hints of blue peek through the branches.
Guarnaccia's strength derives from his confident stroke, evident here in his rendering of the forest background. Up close it's chaos, but stand back and his strokes form the right impression, set the right setting. You don't need to read the title to feel Vermont or New Hampshire here. And the light in the forest is delicious, lighting the bark of the tree to dynamic effect.
Without the common trappings of bucolic art of these states—stone walls, white church steeples, fall foliage—this painting takes us to another core spirit of New England.

Robert Frazer, Artists' Association of Nantucket, President

Lou Guarnaccia – Cavalier Gallery
Marine painting has a unique following. That portion devoted to sailing vessels, as opposed to shoreline scenes, seascapes, classic steamers, military vessels, or other marine subjects, is a genre studied closely by its collectors. Often they understand the defining details of an Indian, or the look of an asymmetrical genoa sail. And they usually know some history of past marine painters and whether they're members of the American Society for Marine Artists (the poorly-acronymed ASMA).
Tough critics. Scholarship and historical accuracy wanted.
Lou Guarnaccia's skills as a fine artist and portrait painter allow him his own stamp on the tradition. His most effective pieces concentrate on the light of early morning or late afternoon, and how changing weather affects the mood of the moment and the sky's palette of colors.
Color. That is one of Lou's defining strengths. Sail cloth turns warm and buttery. Areas of light and shadow give the waves presence. Clouds are tinged with reds and purples in visible brush strokes.
Brush strokes. Impressionistic flair is another of his fortes.
All vivid, yet the rendering is subtle and classical in feel.
Picture this. A number of big sailboats in full sail – probably racing – pass from dark chop into an area of light so intense that the wave tops, in fact the entire set of surface planes ahead, shimmer lemon yellow. The perspective is from the rear, and you get the feeling that you are just one boat back, about to be transformed by the same magical passage.
Critics take note, Lou passes muster in his present exhibit at the Cavalier.

by Robert Fraser, Yesterday's Island, Arts Buzz, What's Happening Now