Note from the artist

This collection started as a study of “glimpses” — those views caught from a pause on a trail, where something beautiful appears just off in the distance. A sliver of ocean, a bend in the path, a horizon barely visible through the trees. There's something quietly hopeful about these glimpses; the sense that what you can see is only a small part of something even more beautiful, and that if you keep going, you'll find it. As the paintings came together, a second idea took shape. The wild, tangled foregrounds — the overgrown branches, the wildflowers mid-bloom — turned out to be just as beautiful as the distant views they framed. It felt like an honest reflection of life: the glimpse ahead gives us direction and hope, but the real treasures are the small, vivid moments happening right around us. These paintings are a reminder to hold onto both. 

Places That Stay With You Sam Chappell’s latest exhibition brings together a series of expressive acrylic landscapes that translate memory and emotion into vibrant, immersive color. Works such as Take Your Time, Morning Light, and the monumental Find a Beautiful Love reflect her intuitive process—layering loose, energetic brushstrokes over a luminous underpainting to create scenes that feel both grounded and atmospheric . Rather than documenting a specific place, these paintings capture the shifting sensation of being within it—light moving across water, the stillness of a trail, or the quiet pull of a horizon. Rooted in personal experience yet open to interpretation, Chappell’s work functions as a visual diary of places that have shaped her—coastal Maine, inland paths, and remembered landscapes from afar. Titles like Everything and Everyone and Of Love and Life suggest a deeper emotional register, where landscape becomes a stand-in for connection, memory, and reflection . The result is a body of work that feels both intimate and expansive—paintings that invite viewers to slow down, recall their own meaningful places, and find something of themselves within each scene.