For Albright, it’s about learning through teaching

SHARON — Judy Albright, an artist and a Sharon resident, has a new show on display at The Gallery @ the Sharon Historical Society called “Dust and Shadows.” The pastel works are on display through Saturday, March 7. An opening reception was held Jan. 17.

The show features pastel still life and landscape paintings that were inspired by Albright’s interest in the spaces between and behind objects. A quote from “The Odes” of Horace, “Pulvis et umbra sumus,” meaning “we are but dust and shadow,” influenced the focus of the show.

Albright grew up in Ossining, N.Y., and attended the State University of New York at New Paltz, where she received a degree in early childhood education.

Following graduation, she took a job in the Pine Plains Central School District teaching kindergarten, first grade and second grade. She was also a writing specialist for 32 years. She raised her daughter, Jane, in Sharon.

After she retired from teaching in 2006, Albright decided to treat herself to a studio art class at the Southern Vermont Art Center in Manchester, Vt. She took a pastel class taught by Robert Carsten because the picture of him had his cat in it, and he looked “really nice.”

After finishing Carsten’s one-week class, Albright returned home — and put her art career on hold due to a fear of creating art.

Roughly a year later, Albright overcame her fear and began taking classes at the Washington Art Association in Washington Depot, Conn., as well as the Northlight Art Center in Sharon with Pieter Lefferts.

Recently, Albright has combined her two careers: She is teaching pastel classes at Northlight. She said she is enjoying it immensely, and in the process she is learning more about herself and her own art through the questions the students ask her about her work and her process.