| Graduation from New York City Community College of
Art and Science, three years of courses at Pratt Institute
and School of Visual Arts prepared Gene for a long and
successful advertising career. Upon retirement as an
executive art director at BBDO in Manhattan, Gene bought
the farm, literally! |
 |
Chasing one of his dreams, Gene moved to a farm in
Montgomery, NY to enjoy a lifestyle so different from
his Brooklyn roots. This lifestyle eventually gave him
the opportunity to fulfill his most serious passion -
oil painting en plein air. He studied with Frank Ferrante,
a talented plein air painter/instructor from New Jersey,
who he met on his very first paint-out in Middletown,
NY. Next Gene joined a weekly Plein air workshop led
by Shawn Dell Joyce of “Painting on Location”.
He currently is one of the demonstrators of that group.
Gene attends workshops when time permits, most recently
with one of the contemporary painters he admires most,
James Coe.
Gene has exhibited his work extensively in
many auctions and events in the Hudson Valley. |
|
One of his paintings was purchased by Ottaway Newspapers
to be on permanent exhibit at Phillies Bridge Farm in Gardiner.
He has had a two person show at the Pine Bush Cultural
Arts Center and a three person show in the James Douglas
Gallery in Montgomery for which he received many positive
reviews in the local press. The Times Herald Record wrote: “Bové,
a former advertising executive in Manhattan, now living
in Pine Bush, has turned to his first love, painting. His
sweeping landscapes exhibit a mastery of color, light and
composition. Realistic, representational, but nonetheless
inspirational, Bové’s oil paintings elicit
the “wow” response as one gorgeous landscape
after another reveals itself along the walls of the gallery.”
Throughout
his life Gene has been an avid gardener and nature lover,
this being passed on to him by his father
whose idea of family entertainment was to bring (sometimes
coerce) his children on excursions to the Brooklyn Botanical
Gardens or the gardens at Sterling Forest. Today Gene feels
blessed to be living in the beautiful Hudson Valley and
able to paint the beauty that surrounds him with the Catskill
and Shawangunk Mountains in such close proximity. One of
his major concerns is the rampant development that is drastically
reducing the farms and farmlands in the area. He has made
a conscious effort to paint and record many old barns which
he feels are most threatened in the name of “progress”.
Gene
is a member of the New York Plein Air Painters, Pine Bush
Area Arts Council, The Washingtonville Art
Society and the Garrison Art Center. |
|
