Elena De La Ville has just arrived home after a class at Featherstone Center for the Arts, still seemingly abuzz. You can hear the artist’s passion for teaching instantly as she describes the beeswax collage class as a complete success: “It was incredible!”

For those unfamiliar with the artistic capabilities of beeswax, she explains, “It sort of is using beeswax as glue, to be the medium for what you do, and using whatever people had to make a new piece in collage.”

On a sunny August morning in 1990, a retired lawyer living on the Vineyard was setting up his presentation for that year’s All Island Art Show at the Tabernacle in Oak Bluffs.

“I’m getting back into the spirit of Martha’s Vineyard,” he told a Gazette reporter at the time. It was a comment the reporter said reflected the atmosphere of the day. And it’s a sentiment, according to Gazette records, that has marked the last half-century for the All Island Art Show, which opens for its 50th year Monday at the Tabernacle.

A retrospective exhibition of Susan Sellers’s plein air works opens this Sunday, April 20, with a reception from 4 to 6 p.m. at Featherstone Center for the Arts.

Ms. Sellers’s show of nearly 30 pieces, primarily oils with a few pastels and giclées, reflects the Vineyard. The gas pump on North Road, an abandoned Chilmark tractor, a weathered house — such things inspire Ms. Sellers and imbue her art with a timelessness.

Alison Shaw: Yellow

The Yellow Show is opening with a reception at the Alison Shaw Gallery during the Arts District Stroll this Saturday, July 12, from 4 to 7 p.m.

Island chef and author of Raising the Salad Bar Cathy Walthers will be there with one of her salads; Slice of Life baker Megan D’Olimpio is creating a dessert; and Craig MacCormack will be bartender for the day.

Strollers along Edgartown’s Dock street who would like to pause for awhile and watch the Chappy ferry come and go, can now sit on a brand new bench outside the Old Sculpin Gallery. It was dedicated last Sunday to Fred and Jane Messersmith of DeLand, Fla. and Edgartown for their decades of service to the gallery. And it was dedicated on the opening day of Mr. Messersmith’s retrospective show of watercolors of Edgartown streets and Island shores.

The Belushi Pisano Gallery kicks off its summer season with a group exhibition of works by many Vineyard artists including the gallery’s director, Jessica Pisano, metal artist Graeme Bradlee, as well as jewelers Andrea Hartman, Ronni Simon and former Island resident Tracy Page Smith. The show also includes hand-formed lamps by Jenik K. Munafo and furniture by John Thayer.

Domestic Secrets, an exhibition of photographs by Julie Jaffe, opens with a reception this evening, Friday, August 1, from 5 to 6:45 p.m. at the Bank of Martha’s Vineyard in Chilmark, across from the Community Center on State Road.

The Granary Gallery at the Red Barn welcomes all to an artists’ reception on Sunday, July 6, from 5 to 7 p.m. for new works by Alison Shaw, Scott Terry and Carol Maguire.

Alison Shaw continues to pursue her “camera as paintbrush” notion and has created a variety of new images involving color, motion and composition. She will also unveil new photographs taken in Venice, Italy.

Kids’ Art on Show

Artists from the ages of 7 to 11 have been working all summer to create masterpieces everyone and their mother can love. Now this artwork is on view for the public.

On Saturday, August 9, the Old Sculpin Gallery will be completely transformed as they hold a reception to showcase the work created at the camp from 2 to 4 p.m. at the gallery on Dock street in Edgartown.

For details, call 508-627-4881.

Photography at Dragonfly

The opening reception for the Dragonfly Gallery’s photography show will be held Saturday, May 24, from 4 to 7 p.m. at the gallery at 91 Dukes County avenue. The show runs from May 22 through June 1.

The gallery’s show features many Vineyard and regional photographers. Photos of familiar vistas as well as exotic places and personal looks at nature and the world are included. From black and white to bold color, this show expresses the magic of the many types of cameras, photographers and printing processes.