Much like some of his artistic subjects, Sal Aiello’s paintings of barns in various states of disrepair, currently on display at the Pine Bush Area Public Library, will be disappearing before you know it.

The show ends on Friday, Jan. 27. The library is located at 227 Maple Ave., Pine Bush. The gallery is free to view and is open on Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Thursdays from noon to 8 p.m. and Fridays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The show “Barns” lives up to its name, featuring 14 paintings of local barns done by Aiello in the past two years. However, not everything is as cut and dry as one might assume: The gallery features “old, dilapidated, falling down barns that intrigued me in terms of their characters and the landscape,” said Aiello.

Some of the barns have since been destroyed, either by Mother Nature and Father Time or by those looking to salvage the wood, to be used in bars and homes as decorations.

Aiello, a multimedia artist and Pine Bush resident, has stuck to oil painting for the pictures on display in the gallery. But there was also a modicum of technology involved as well, as Aiello would scout out his subjects and take digital photographs of them, using the pictures as a reference for his paintings.

Having been an art teacher at Sachem School District on Long Island for more than three decades, Aiello has experience with many forms of artistic expression.

“I taught every aspect of art from elementary up to high school, from drawing and painting to computer graphics, with every stop in between – sculpture, pottery and things like that,” Aiello said.

It’s perhaps inaccurate to say that Aiello has “limited” himself to oil painting for the Pine Bush Library exhibit, given the broad range of techniques and emotions present in the display. That might not be surprising, considering that Aiello has had quite a while to master his method.

“Oil painting has always come to me naturally,” said Aiello, pointing out that he began his craft in high school and has continued through retirement. “After my retirement from teaching, I decided that I would commit myself totally to just painting; painting things that I wanted to paint.”

Though art means different things to different people, there’s a specific message that Aiello hopes to give his audience.

“I think I’d like them to take away with them the aspect that there is a lot of character back in the country roads and hills of the mid Hudson Valley,” he said. “Being a Long Islander and retiring and moving up here, I found that there’s an awful lot to look at [and] an awful lot to admire with the landscape. These barns become integrated with the landscape, become one with them, and in fact they’re beginning to evolve back into the bushes and the brambles and the vines and the trees that are surrounding them – and actually holding them up. They’re sort of reminiscent of older times in the mid Hudson Valley.”

Like a prolific reader or writer, Aiello usually has six or seven projects going at once, admitting that he has several unfinished barn paintings that would have otherwise been fodder for the Pine Bush Library show.

“I don’t usually work on one all the way through,” said Aiello. “I usually stop or start another one or continue working on something else. It depends upon my mood; what I want to do.”

In addition to painting, Aiello also pursues a bit of writing. During the daytime, the retiree says that he enjoys doing house and yard work, then prepares dinner for his wife upon her return from work.

“That is retirement,” he said. “It’s a very nice existence. There are people out there who aren’t as fortunate as I, and I feel that I’m very happy.”

For more information about the gallery, visit http://www.rcls.org/pbl/ or call 744-3375.

By Matt Frey
mfrey@tcnewspapers.com