“Down from the Hills,” an exhibition of paintings and works on paper of life in the Catskill Mountains by Ashley Norwood Cooper, will be on view at First Street Gallery from April 24 - May 19.

“Sometimes the country is scary” said the artist’s six year old son, staring out the car window one moonless night at crooked houses, abandoned barns and ancient hills. The feeling that he was expressing has been noted by artists and writers going all the way back to Washington Irving. The Catskills are strange, mystical and, frankly, a little creepy.

Ashley Norwood Cooper’s quirky, narrative paintings of rural family life capture that strangeness. In this exhibition families raise their children, weed their gardens, and go about their business while nature looms close and the skeletons of the past lurk never that far away.

Ms. Cooper lives in Cooperstown, NY with her husband, three children, two dogs, a cat, a gecko, a dove and a gerbil. This is her second show at First Street Gallery. A reception for the artist will be held Saturday, April 28 from 3-5 PM.