Behind the Bookstore is an area of innovation. Coffee, pastries, wine and now painting, too. On Thursday evenings the Edgartown coffee shop is hosting an event dedicated to the fine art of creativity and cocktails.
Last year the North Water Gallery in Edgartown held a plein air event that included several of their artists taking to the streets of Edgartown during a weeklong period and producing works of art to be sold at the end of the week. Art lovers enjoyed the event so much that this year it has been expanded to include the Christina Gallery and Piknik Art and Apparel, both also located in Edgartown.
For her 60th birthday, Margot Datz gifted herself the ultimate luxury.
“I gave myself the time to paint 12 hearts,” Ms. Datz said of her new collection, The Illuminated Heart.
“It was a personal project 10 years in the yearning,” she said. “Not 10 years in the making, because I painted them this summer, 10 years in the yearning, because the ideas have been in my head for years.”
A dozen detailed hearts make up The Illuminated Heart, which will be on display for one night only at the Grange Hall in West Tisbury on August 10.
For Stephanie Yakely Danforth art is her second career. She was a pediatric nurse practitioner for 20 years. In 2000, she traveled to Kenya and had an epiphany.
“My soul was touched forever by my experience there,” she said. “Since then, every dollar I make with my art goes directly to help provide education for children in need. My years in pediatrics and art blend together to make the purpose of my creating art even more profound to me. I love creating my art but my art allows me to help change lives.”
Chris Kennedy, Martha’s Vineyard superintendent for The Trustees of Reservations, has spent the past 25 years touring Trustees properties on the Island. He’s seen Wasque, Mytoi, Norton Point and Long Point in all seasons and all types of weather, watching the landscapes shift and transform over time.
As long as Gigi Horr Liverant has been visiting the Island she has been painting it. For 30 years, she has studied the landscape, the archetypal and the commonplace of the Vineyard, and committed it to canvas with pastels, acrylics and oils. While she’s here she takes photographs, makes sketches and brainstorms ideas about what to paint.
There’s a paint-off going on this weekend and everyone is invited to check it out. Called Painting the Vineyard and benefiting The Trustees of Reservations, the event involves local artists painting on site at five Trustees locations on the Island and Chappaquiddick. Artists will be painting at Mytoi, Wasque Point and Cape Pogue on Chappaquiddick; Norton Point Beach (Katama) in Edgartown; and Long Point Wildlife Refuge in West Tisbury. There will be transportation available from the Chappy ferry to the Chappaquiddick sites.
For many years artist Kara Taylor’s gallery was located on Main street in Vineyard Haven. But this past summer she needed to find a new place to show her work. At first she focused on finding another spot in Vineyard Haven. A deal was almost made and then collapsed at the last minute. She widened her gaze to include up-Island, which would mean her gallery would have to be a destination spot rather than a place people might encounter on a casual stroll through town. Added pressure, of course, but over the years Ms.
On Sunday Featherstone Center for the Arts celebrated Lucy Vincent Beach with its own art reception. The party marked the opening of an exhibit that runs through May 8.
The show came into being after artist Linda Ziegler surveyed the damage done to the beach by Hurricane Sandy and wanted to find a way to honor what has long been a favorite Vineyard destination.
Two artists, Ray Ellis, 91, from Edgartown and Joshua Chase, 10, from Hudson, will be featured this morning on the Today Show. The two are new best friends. Joshua earned the attention of talent scouts when pictures of his paintings were submitted by his mother, Chantel Chase, to the television program’s nationwide search. One of the signature paintings is an interpretative copy of Mr. Ellis’s painting Moonrise over Edgartown Harbor which includes a sloop and a ketch sailing towards the Edgartown Lighthouse.
