There’s something unusual going on in the work at Cross Gate Gallery. The oil paintings on display are striking with their combinations of light and color mixing into expertly handled vistas of exotic locales. And yet, there’s a sneaking hint of some-thing modern in these more overtly traditional works. A tinge here, a taste there -- it’s tantaliz-ing, and makes a good show even better.

The exhibition, New Works by Thomas Coates, brings the work of an internationally recognized English artist to town. Work-ing in a contemporary impres-sionistic style, Coates’ vistas of

England, Italy, Egypt and other places are on display in this show of mostly landscapes. Featured in past New English Art Club shows at the gallery, Coates is exhib-iting new work in anticipation of the 2008 pub-

lication of his book The Travels of Tom Coates.

But to view these works only on the printed page would be heartbreaking; these paintings have to be seen in person to be experienced.

And what an experience they are. The exotic views and vistas do not move one so much as the artist’s method: Each work is conceived of in daubs of paint and hints of color that come together to form a sen-sory impression of the scene. Strolling around the gallery, the viewer feels transported into the Hampshire countryside or a Giza desert.

Though some works display merely the picturesque, others bring in surprising elements of perspective that add depth to the scene. In Parisian Coffee and Chocolate Shop, muted browns and lighter grays come together to show the window-lit shop-keeper and customer conduct-ing a day’s business. Standing in front of the pastry case, the woman’s jutting elbows contrast with the case’s angularity, provid-ing a differentiation that relaxes her insistent pose.

Another example, and one of the outstanding pieces of the show, is After the Floods, San Marco. This piazza scene is framed so the top of St. Mark’s Basilica is cut off. The spires and dome of the church are still present in the painting, re-versed in the reflection from the water puddles upon the square’s pavement. Between them lies the color of the painting; strips of pink, green and teal mark brightly colored umbrellas and candy-colored cafŽ chairs.

Though the paintings are exel-lent examples of contemporacry impressionism, there’s a hint of modernism present within Coates’ treatment of the sky. A typical impressionistic view of the sky is a blend of colors marking both blue sky and white clouds, with coloration for wind, sun and humidity.

At first glance, this contrast-ing style serves to focus the viewer’s attention on the action of the scene below. Yet Coates’ use of the single-colored sky also functions as a separate element within the works, bringing the viewer out of the scene and forc-ing the eye to recognize the use of paint and brushwork within the works.

In A Kiss in the Shadows of Paris, the solid-blue expanse of sky is a markedly separate ele-ment from the blended blues and purples below. Its utter difference in style both points to the street-level action, done in brushwork so loose that the kissing couple are only streaks of black outline, and highlights the more closely worked towering architectural forms above. Sketching in the Sudan demonstrates this further, as the gray-blue sky becomes another focal point within the painting.

entertainment

MeganMARCUM

Old, new characterizegallery showlandscapes

Dave Matthews Band is back on tour with plenty of surprises

‘Brothers’ proves to be more fictional than reality THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Movies about the traumas of US wars seem to fare better when stick-ing to the more familiar turf of what is going down dramatically on the home front, rather than in conflict abroad.

And Brothers, like the fractured psyche of its combat soldier protag-onist played by Tobey Maguire, gets it more than right while penetrating the tragic fallout from post-trau-matic stress disorder, but shatters

and loses its way while conceptual-izing contrived war zones far away.

Adapted from Danish film-maker Susanne Bier’s 2004 Brødre and helmed by Irish director Jim Sheridan (My Left Foot), Brothers stars Tobey Maguire as Sam Cahill, a decorated marine.

Sam obediently followed in the footsteps of his stern marine vet father, Hank (Sam Shepard), while his younger brother Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal) has embraced more re-bellious tendencies. Tommy, who despises war, has just been released

from prison where he spent time for an attempted bank robbery.

When the family gathers for a tense farewell dinner where Sam’s devoted wife Grace (Natalie Port-man)and two small daughters Isa-belle (Bailee Madison) and Mag-gie (Taylor Geare) prepare for his departure for Afghanistan, Tommy is invited to join them as an unwel-come guest.

The gathering quickly escalates from awkward to confrontational, as Hank makes little effort to conceal his contempt for a wayward son re-

turning home, and his favored child heading off into harm’s way.

When Sam’s plane is later shot down in Afghanistan and Grace re-ceives news that he’s dead, Tommy is filled with rage towards his fam-

ily for encouraging Sam to join the military in the first place. But pro-tective feelings towards his brother’s brokenhearted widow and her chil-dren soon evolve, and eventually blossom into a barely suppressed attraction between Tommy and Grace that is increasingly difficult to resist. And when Sam is eventually found alive and freed from captiv-ity and torture by the Taliban, he re-turns him to a situation fraught with looming psychological turmoil.

Elon to host global artists for 2010 concert seriesStaff reports

With five of six artists and en-sembles making their local debuts, Elon University’s 2010 concert series will offer both fresh and traditional talent.

The series opens January 18 with a performance by the Houston Bal-let, America’s fifth largest ballet com-pany. The ensemble has been hailed by The New York Times as “one of the nation’s best ballet companies.” The company performs an extensive repertoire of works, ranging from the great nineteenth century clas-sics (Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, and The Nutcracker) to cutting-edge pieces by some of the world’s most exciting young dancers (including Trey McIntyre, Julia Adam, and Nat-alie Weir).

The Takacs String Quartet will

perform on Feb. 12. Recognized as one of the world’s greatest string quartets, the group appears regularly in nearly every major music capital and prestigious festival across the world. The 2003 Grammy-winning quartet pushes perfection to the lim-it, combining an uncommon sense of sarcasm and sentiment.

The series continues on April. 13 with the Lois M. Nitschke Memorial Concert featuring celebrated violin-ist Midori. Winner of the coveted 2001 Avery Fisher Prize, Midori be-gan studying the violin at a very ear-ly age and performed as a guest solo-ist for the New York Philharmonic’s traditional New Year’s Eve concert at age 11. No longer a child prodigy but an extraordinary artist, she plays with a deep sense of emotion and at-tachment to each piece.

On May 4, Imani Winds will ap-

pear in the Louise F. Rees Memorial Concert. The five outstanding musi-cians of African-American and Lat-in heritage joined in 1996 to create an ensemble capable of pushing all the traditional boundaries of a wind quintet. As Concert Artists Guild’s first-ever educational residency en-semble, Imani Winds offers a wide array of educational and uplifting programs and performances. Their visit will include a three-day com-munity mini-residency.

The Festival Series concludes on Sept. 18 with a performance by world-renowned pianist Lang Lang. Only 20 years old, he has demon-strated an extraordinary ability to connect with audiences on a deeply personal level and is proving himself to be one of the most exciting pia-nists of our time.

Friday, December 4, 2009

Arts &

By LEONARD MOOREStaff Writer

Like clockwork, the Dave Matthews Band is hitting Greens-boro, this time without a new album in tow.

Like the Grateful Dead before them, the DMB tour has become an annual routine, but that doesn’t mean the DMB faithful should expect the predictable, according to

Boyd Tinsley, the band’s jazzy violinist.“We’re always trying to push ourselves to take the music to the

next place. We never just sit on our laurels and play everything the same way and just cruise along. We’re always trying to make the music better and more rocking. We started off as a touring band, and we were touring before we had an album. And that’s the lifeline of this band.”

It seemed like there was a fracture in the tightly knit Charlot-tesville, Va., band, but, says Tinsley, “It may have seemed like that to people on the outside, but it was never like that among the band itself. It was a period of time when everyone had to explore their own places of music and then bring that back to the band.”

The tour arrives with the band (Matthews, Tinsley, bassist Stefan Lessard, drummer Carter Beauford and saxophonist LeRoi Moore) in the process of writing its next record and eager to test drive some of the new stuff.

“We know that it’s when we get those songs on the road and play them live for audiences over and over, that’s when they really tight-en up and that’s when they really evolve,” Tinsley says. “So we’re go-ing to take some of these songs and play them on tour this summer, and then come back in the fall and put them down on tape.”

The band, which now has a catalog of more than 100 songs, will have about 40 at its fingertips, rotating them from night to night for the sake of freshness and, of course, the road-tripping fans.

“The set list is usually done about an hour before the gig, and that’s usually done between Dave and Stefan,” Tinsley says. “We some-times get complications with Carter, because they’re the rhythm section -- they’re the ones who are playing the whole time. Me and LeRoi, sometimes we get to just hang. They sort of like shape the set list, but it’s not uncommon that we’ll call an audible somewhere in the set list.

AVOIDING PREDICTABILITY

ARTISTS // A3

DMB SURPRISES // A3

BROTHERS // A8

Pianist Lang Lang is a world-renowned musician and the recipient of numerous prestigious awards. Lang will conclude the festival series.

• R (110 minutes)• Carousel Cinemas at Alamance Crossing• Showtimes: 12:40, 3, 5:15, 7:30, 9:45

BROTHERS

WITH: G. Love and Special Sauce.WHERE: Greensboro ColiseumWHEN: 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday (Saturday sold out).TICKETS: $36.50 to $56.50

IF YOU GO: