The old gallery was simple. It was clean and wooden and even still smelled like wood. A painting of an owl in the snow hung on a side wall. The owl was in flight, and brambles hung limp with the weight of the snow. Many more paintings of nature and people surrounded it. They were all hanging in Andrew Moore’s home gallery in Oak Bluffs. But the paintings were about to be moved.
On Sunday, Mr. Moore’s paintings were reintroduced at the Granary Gallery on Old County Road in West Tisbury. The artist decided to join the Granary Gallery so he could spend less time marketing and selling, and more time holding a paintbrush.
Moving the paintings out into the world was definitely a good thing, Mr. Moore explained, but still it was a change.
“It’s like sending my children off into the world,” he said, looking up at his paintings at the opening reception. He should know; his youngest child heads out to college this fall.
Mr. Moore was one of the few people dressed casually at the Granary on Sunday. A pianist played on the patio, where drinks were being served. The parking lots were full and art lovers drifted in and out of the rooms of the old red barn.
Painter Kib Bramhall stood by. He has been painting since he was 16. Six of his paintings hang high on the Granary walls. He has known Mr. Moore for what seems like his whole life he said, and felt the move was a good one, for both Mr. Moore and the gallery.
“It was a no-brainer,” Mr. Bramhall said. “There’s no one better.”
A few days before the opening, Mr. Moore was in his studio studying a print. It was a smaller replica of the owl painting. He explained its creation as a type of science.
“You’re carving the thing in paint,” he explained. “Light has to be established early on,” he added.
Mr. Moore enjoys capturing nature — fields and fishermen, buoys and birds. He uses oil paints and manipulates the whole picture, using light as a primary guide and conquering the whole picture at once.
“It’s a disbelief that someone can do such technical work...they’re better than perfect,” said Chris Morse, owner of Granary Gallery.
“I’m thrilled to have him here...there’s no other better painter in New England,” Mr. Morse continued. “This provides a broader audience for his work...it’s fun to introduce him to the rest of the Island.”
Mr. Moore said has been painting since he was little. His parents were both artists. They taught him to “see the seriousness of the trade,” and that it was a “disciplined lifestyle,” not a pastime.
It’s generational, he said. Both of his children are artists. Like their father, they are succeeding early on because of their hard work and passion.
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