Randy Roos, Photographer, at Village Artists

Summer may be coming to a close but, don’t be sad, the most colorful time of year is just beginning and, to celebrate this season of vivid palettes, the Village Artists and Gallery is featuring the work of photographer Randy Roos. Throughout September, Randy Roos, Artist of the Month, will be presenting his work in the gallery at 51 Main Street in Ashland.

Roos’ landscapes border on the surreal; foreground objects and distant backgrounds share equally sharp definition and a heightened teasing out of the natural colors that emanate from rocks, bushes and trees, water, sky and mountains at carefully chosen moments of light, suggesting ultra-realistic painting in some compositions, or finely-detailed impressionism in others.

Roos says, “My involvement with photography began 25 years ago, probably as a way to balance my obsession with music. It was pretty much all areas of nature at first (wildlife, insect close-ups, forest details and so on) but I gravitated toward mountain landscapes and began concentrating on New Hampshire’s White Mountains.

“I’ve been photographing in the Whites for a number of years, intent on capturing those moments and conditions that few get the chance to experience. Having seen so many hiker-gazing-at-mountaintop-view-in-flat-midday-light images, I’ve been after something else. I’ll go into the wilderness, sometimes for a few days, chasing the good light. This often entails hiking in the dark to get to the right place at the right time, or to get back to my tent. (Fortunately, headlamp technology has advanced considerably over the years!) My goal has always been to capture the unique beauty of our mountains under these special conditions, and to convey some of the indescribable feelings of actually being there.”

When he’s not out running down the perfect wilderness light, Randy is a professional musician. He’s composed many scores for television, including fifteen seasons of PBS Scientific American Frontiers, hosted by Alan Alda, and several of the NOVA series. As well as teaching at the Berklee College of Music, Roos operates a recording studio with his wife Kathy at their residence in Ashland, NH.

The Village Artists and Gallery is open daily from 10 am to 6 pm. For more information about the work of Randy Roos and the many other fine arts and craftwork on display, phone 603-968-4445, or go online to www.villageartistsandgallery. com.