Next week’s spotlight shows at the Shaw Cramer Gallery include woodcut paintings by Ruth Kirchmeier and multi-layered acrylic on canvas paintings of barns and stone walls by Wendy Weldon.
On Tuesday, August 30, at 6 p.m. Ms. Kirchmeier will discuss the intricacies of woodcut carving, painting and printing. On Thursday, September 30, Ms. Weldon will share her inspirations and thoughts about exploring new concepts and techniques in painting. Her paintings originate as handcarved woodblocks.
There is art being made on Martha’s Vineyard Island. Or to be more precise, there is a lot of wonderful art being made here. And while there are numerous galleries to visit, and some days an Islandwide gallery crawl is the perfect vacation experience, other times you just want everyone to come to you.
Island painter Traeger di Pietro is the featured artist this week at Dragonfly Fine Arts Gallery in Oak Bluffs. A reception will be held for him at the gallery on Saturday, Sept. 10, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
Mr. di Pietro’s work focuses on landscapes, seascapes and figurative imagery depicting the Island and its working fishermen. This year three off-Island galleries have also begun to show his work.
It’s summertime and Martha’s Vineyard looks like one big landscape oil painting. Simply perfect and bursting with both subtle shades and vibrant colors. Shame the Island is too big to pop in the trunk of the car and take home to remember such perfection all winter long. We have tried, but no go, even with one of those clamshells on the roof-rack. Chappy keeps blowing off midway home and ending up in the tall weeds somewhere off 95.
Even for an established weaver with 45 years of experience, it seems the essence of tapestry art is best explained by the reaction of an outsider to the art. While at a tapestry show in Philadelphia, Julia Mitchell witnessed the raw and pure reaction to her craft. A man passing by stopped in front of one of her woven linen tapestries and gawked momentarily before approaching the piece. Then he took the cloth in his hands, thrust it to his nose and sniffed deeply.
Featherstone Center for the Arts has attracted an especially random group of Island artists for its new show, The Art of Personal Altars. This is not the usual show of landscape painters or photographers, sculptors or fabric artists — no such mundane grouping applies here. These personal altars cross all categories of the visual arts. Ann Smith, executive director at Featherstone, hopes this will be a new way for artists to express themselves. “We’ve had an incredible response,” she said.
Don’t forget about Vineyard Haven. The town, hit by the one-two punch of the July 4, 2008 fire that destroyed Café Moxie and severely damaged the Bunch of Grapes Bookstore, and the recession, has struggled to match the crowded, bustling streets of Edgartown and Oak Bluffs.
Tonight, July 15, from 5 to 8 p.m. local business leaders hope to turn things around with an event billed as an art stroll but that in fact includes a variety of businesses along Main street.
Vineyard Haven is hosting an art stroll tonight from 5 to 8 p.m. Galleries and businesses along and around Main street are keeping the lights on later, plus providing refreshments.
Rick Bausman and his Steel Breeze group, think relaxing beats from a host of steel drums, and Ballyhoo are providing the musical backdrop for the evening.
Jessica Pisano once owned the Belushi-Pisano Art Gallery in Vineyard Haven and Edgartown. She now paints full-time in Newport, Rhode Island. The results of this change to complete immersion in her art can be seen this week, July 28 through August 3, at the Dragonfly Gallery in Oak Bluffs where she will be the featured artist.
Ms. Pisano incorporates gold and silver leaf, acrylic and oil on board in her landscapes of Island marshes and seascapes.
There will be an artist’s reception for Michael Kahn on Sept. 10 at 3 p.m. at the North Water Gallery located at 27 North Water street in Edgartown.
Mr. Kahn is a photographer whose work focuses on boats and nature. Images of antique boats from around the world and coastal landscapes are manipulated in the darkroom, resulting in the richly toned and technically advanced silver gelatin prints.
