(SHARON, Conn.) – An exhibition of paintings by Copake, N.Y., artist Jeffrey L. Neumann – who some consider an inheritor of a torch figuratively passed down by Edward Hopper, in terms of Neumann’s vision of the loneliness of small-town life in America – opens at the Sharon Historical Society and Museum with an artist’s reception on Saturday, September 7, 2013, from 5 to 7pm, and runs through Friday, October 25. There will be an artist’s Walk and Talk on Sunday October 13, at 3pm.

According to an official press release from the Gallery @ the Sharon Historical Society, the exhibit, Vanishing America: The Disappearing Commercial Landscape of the 20th Century, “is a celebration of the exuberance and independent spirit of life in post WWII America tempered by the inexorable march of time. With a focus on the mom and pop eating establishments, motels and movie theatres of roadside America, Neumann’s paintings take the viewer on journey down the two-lane highways of the twentieth century. They allow us to experience a part of our past that is being rapidly replaced by the widespread influence of corporate conformity.”

Neumann was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 1953, and currently resides in Copake, N.Y. The subjects of his oil and watercolor paintings come from all across the nation. They are influenced by Neumann’s childhood years living in New Mexico and California and his numerous trips on Route 66 in the back of the family station wagon.

“I have to experience a deeply personal connection with my subject. This emotional response is what I try to convey. I’m seeking to evoke a certain mood through the limitations of paint,” says Neumann.

“Neumann’s luminous oils and watercolors penetrate the duality of the American experience,” says Audrey Levin McLaughlin in Santa Fe Circle magazine.

“Neumann explores the profound meaning one may find in overlooked places…. for Neumann, the act of painting serves to preserve unique aspects of American cultural history while reflecting on the spirit that lives on in our built environment.” Jeffrey Carlson, Fine Art Today: Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine.

Art critic Jon Carver, writing for Santa Fe’s THE Magazine states: “…he achieves some of the eerie stillness of Edward Hopper.”

Neumann currently maintains a studio and gallery in Hillsdale, N.Y., called Neumann Fine Art.

Running concurrently with Neumann’s Vanishing America exhibit in The Gallery @the SHS, the Sharon Historical Society & Museum will present Now you see it… in the exhibit galleries. This exhibit will take its audience backwards in time, challenging the viewer to use objects and images that are familiar today as a roadmap to the past. Focusing primarily on the changes that have occurred in town from 1850 to the present day, visitors will be confronted with familiar scenes, such as the Sharon War Memorial, the Sharon Fire Department, Mudge Pond Beach, the Sharon Valley Tavern, Sharon Hospital and the Sharon Center School, and with the help of objects from the museum collection, will be transported back in time to pivotal junctures in the town’s development.

The Sharon Historical Society and Museum is located at 18 Main Street, Sharon, Conn.

Museum hours are Wednesday & Saturday from 10am – 2pm, Thursday & Friday from 10am – 4am and by appointment.