Galleries along Dukes County avenue in Oak Bluffs offered food, drink and a look at the work of close to 30 artists during the season’s first Arts District Stroll Saturday afternoon.
A mix of single-artist, cooperative and curated galleries, the short but lively Arts District strip is anchored at one end by the nonprofit Art Gallery, operated by members of the Martha’s Vineyard Center for the Arts, and at the other by the Alison Shaw Gallery, in the former firehouse that was the Center for the Arts’ original home until 2006.
While Arts District galleries are open daily in the summertime, the stroll invited visitors to eat, drink, meet the artists and learn about their work over a leisurely three-hour open house.
Outside the Art Gallery, jazz duo John Alaimo and Mike Tinus played piano and bass duets. Inside, longtime Center for the Arts members including Marston Clough (landscapes) and Ruth Kirchmeier (woodcuts) are joined this year by cut-paper artist Taylor Stone, a graduate of Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School and its art, design and technology program.
In her first-ever gallery show, Ms. Stone is showing a range of mostly Vineyard-themed, often three-dimensional works such as topographical maps of the Island and views of Lambert’s Cove Beach, Great Rock Bight and the ArtCliff Diner sign.
Ms. Taylor uses a precision knife to cut the paper by hand, using a computer printout of her original design for a pattern. Small bits of wood, carefully glued, separate the paper layers to add the third dimension.
One of her more fanciful creations, A Fairy Parade, was a standout at February’s, My One and Only group show at Featherstone Center for the Arts. Ms. Stone’s elfin fairies and their animal companions are characters begging for a story—and the fairies’ wings glow in the dark.
“I try to throw in little things that only the owner will notice,” said Ms. Stone, whose works are carefully framed in wood by Edgartown cabinetmaker David Wiley.
The Art Gallery also has exuberant acrylics by Linda Ferrini, including both wall art and a table runner; wampum jewelry by Joan LeLacheur; ceramics and beaded barrettes by Helayne R. Cohen and colorful rayon scarves hand-dyed by Olivia Bell Mason.
Several of the 12 featured artists, including painter Renee Balter and pressed-flower artist Peggy Turner Zablotny, also have notecards printed with their works.
Next on the odd-numbered side of Dukes County avenue, photographer Michael Blanchard’s Crossroads Gallery is lined from floor to ceiling with his Martha’s Vineyard photographs—from note cards and small matted prints to expansive, 40” by 60” limited-edition prints on metal.
Mr. Blanchard also has created a Vineyard Serenity art calendar which runs through December, 2020, with sales to benefit Misty Meadows Equine Learning Center.
The neighboring Knowhere Gallery held its grand opening Saturday with a show by Boston-based Artists for Humanity, more than a dozen painters working chiefly in acrylic on wood or canvas. Among the intriguing abstracts are a handful of portraits, including a mod Diana Ross in an afro that frames her face exactly as a vinyl LP frames its label.
Around the corner on Vineyard avenue, enamelist Linda Sheldon opens her jewelry workshop for the stroll, selling necklaces, rings, earrings, pendants and bracelets.
A second-generation enamelist skilled at the art of cloisonné—in which thin metal wires separate different colors of enamel in a design—Ms. Sheldon teaches year-round in the jewelry program at Featherstone.
“I just want to pass this knowledge on,” she said. “I want more people to find out the fun of enameling. It’s alchemy! It melts before your eyes.”
Across Dukes County avenue, Alison Shaw is showing her recent boat photographs and tractor details alongside some of her most enduring Vineyard images: the baby lamb, freshly-picked blueberries, Island shores. Ms. Shaw also has prints available of works by students in her mentorship program.
Periwinkle Gallery is devoted to Judith Drew Schubert’s paintings of Island landscapes, seascapes and birds.
The Arts District Stroll returns August 3 and Sept. 7 from 4 to 7 p.m.
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