Greenfield artist Maxine Tucker of Hovey Road will hold an art exhibition of her work titled “With My Own Two Hands,” a collection of oil paintings featuring local community members at work. Tucker has painted mostly 30X30 portraits of 13 individuals at work from hair cutting to a butcher, painter, firemen, farrier and more.

The exhibit will be free and open to the public on June 1 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 13 South Greenfield Rd.

Tucker said the idea is a modern view of 19th Century work when painters started focusing on ordinary people in their ordinary lives, rather than its previous focus on the wealthy.

The paintings feature a number of Greenfield residents including:

• John Arnold, Arnold Farm
• Kylee Chamberlain, Kylee’s Kuts
• Ian Macacia, farrier at Old Friends at Cabin Creek
• Joe Mihalek, mechanic/owner of Mihalek’s Garage
• Brian Gibbins and multiple Greenfield volunteer firemen
• Mackensie Luse, an EMT at Greenfield Ambulance
• John Unser, butcher
• Vince Walsh, Foothills Tree Service

The other portraits are all people that work within 8-10 miles of Tucker’s home.

Her most recent subject is none other than Town Supervisor Kevin Veitch, who was recently photographed in his Town Hall office for the series. Tucker will work on the painting at least in part, live at the TOG’s First Community Day celebration May 17 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Middle Grove Town Park.

“Some days I wonder what in the world this job will bring to me next,” joked Supervisor Veitch. “There is never a dull moment that is for sure. I’m honored to be a subject in this TOG-centered art collection because it represents the most special things about our town: our people and how much we care for one another.”

“I spend about 30 hours on each portrait and it allows me the chance to make special connections with each of them,” she said. Tucker paints from a series of photos she takes of the subject on the job and then applies creative license to the finished piece, which typically focuses in on the job at hand. The exhibit will be free and open.

Tucker’s exhibit be held in the Greenfield Fire Department’s community room at 13 South Greenfield Road in Greenfield. Note: please park at the side and rear of the firehouse. The paintings will be sold for $800 each. Tucker said she considers barter for local goods and services to cover a portion of the costs as well.

Tucker has lived in Greenfield for 22 years and is a former art teacher at Geyser Road Elementary School and Maple Ave. Middle School in the Saratoga Springs School District.

“I find Greenfield to be the most neighborly town you could live in,” Tucker said. “People are so nice and you can find everything you ever need right here in this beautiful town.”

Tucker said, while most of her friends travel south for the winter, she and her husband love staying right in Greenfield.

“He is a writer and I’m a painter,” she said. “So we are not moving south but staying here. Winter in Greenfield is the perfect time for us to focus on our work.”

Tucker spends less time painting in the warmer months, because she loves to golf. Her husband, William, has written a column about golf in the Times Union newspaper and has several self-published novels.

We hope to see you all at her exhibit on June 1.