152R Main St. Wenham, MA 01984
Tel 978-468-1944
Hours: Thursday through Saturday
11am to 6pm or by appointment

Archives

The Beauty of The Beast...123 works about ANIMALS!

Jane O'Hara's portrat, "True Blue" in oil and gold leaf.
Jane O'Hara's portrat, "True Blue" in oil and gold leaf.
Jude Abbe's oil painting, "Try the Pink Ones".
Jude Abbe's oil painting, "Try the Pink Ones".
Carmela Martin's Pastel painting, "Two of Two".
Carmela Martin's Pastel painting, "Two of Two".

 

The crowd reacted to the extraordinary range of media, styles, scale, and INTERPRETATIONS of the Theme...and this year's Call for Entries also introduced the Gallery to 18 new artists. Significantly, many of the artists receiving raves  are very recent grads from art schools or are actually still undergraduates! Typically, most of our Artists are from the North Shore, widely, but a goodly percent are from far reaching towns and states across the country.

For this exhibit we created an extra Room3 show of "Cats and Dogs"...encompassing works from many pet-portrait specialists who work in oils, watercolors, and pencil media, for Commissioned works. The Gallery will act as agent for clients who wish to select a portrait style from our select artists. As this show took place during the Holidays, we removed art pieces as they were sold and rearranged our walls to 'fill the gaps'.

The local papers have remarked that this is a real 'Family' show, and we certainly think it was one of our most Popular.

SOME CHOSEN WORKS...

Watercolors by Paula Anastasi-Buehler
Watercolors by Paula Anastasi-Buehler
Paul Demakes' illustration to 'Theseus and the Minotaur"
Paul Demakes' illustration to 'Theseus and the Minotaur"

CREATURE FEATURE...Eight artists are presenting Portraits of Pets-By-Commissions in media that expresses warmth and tenderness, nobility and elegance, or downright silliness. Painter, Martha Bannon, presents each pet dog as if 'wearing' the perfect Hat (so much easier than actually putting the hat ON their heads!) in a rather painterly-impressionist manner. Certain other Props can be added to her portraits...such as giant blue-and-white vases? Her dogs can also be grouped to sit placidly next to each other. Martha will work large or small, on request.

Jane O'Hara paints in a powerful, 'juicy', way to capture a shining, life-like moment in Oil paint on wood or metal panels...dogs, cats, bunnies, etc. 

Jackie Musto, whose paintings are remarkably created entirely on the computer, has a style that is a warm and friendly illustration of those little creatures wearing complete costumes with ease.

Elissa Della-Piana specializes in an illustration technique with watercolor and pencils that appears very soft and nostalgic. On exhibit are two tiny portraits of lost pets,Yma and Zelda, imortalized in appropriate period costumes.

David Neill's gentle renderings of pets in like media, capture an uncanny feeling of direct communication.

Photographer, Laura Graf, known for her superb shots of Horses, is also showing a collection of beautiful 'chiaro-oscuro' images of cats and classic portraits of hounds, elegantly composed.

Animal Naturalist, Polly Anastasi-Buehler, uses a classic watercolor technique to render animals in an elegant use of space.

And, Christopher Parent, a naturalist illustrator, has several styles and media he uses to capture an imediacy of the creature, whether from direct life or from photo references. He specializes in black and white /grey tonalities on paper.

"THE BEAUTY of THE BEAST; the Animal as Muse"

new
new

Now underway with the heady task of gathering all the ENTRIES, selecting the Groupings for hanging pieces in each of the THREE ROOMS, plus Hallways and Stairway of this exciting new show. As I had so hoped, the 'Call" not only brought many new artists into the Gallery, but resulted in a wide range of interpretations under our Theme...spanning through Pet Portraits by Commission, to Classic renderings of exotic animals, Abstractions in surprising media, Photograpy of insects to elephants, and Imaginary Beasts/Creatures in 2-D and 3-D. 

There are 160 entries! Typically for my Open Calls we hang - very crowded exhibits - of just over 100 pieces. It is my sincere endeavor to include as many more of these entrants as I possibly can. This Exhibit will also allow us to display for special sale, a collection of elegant working sketches from the renowned Animal Illustrator, George Frederick Mason, 1904-1979, as well as a few other 20th c. naturalists and children's book artists, posthumously.

The Gallery will always try to inform entrants of any pieces that we CANNOT HANG, well before the Opening event, on Saturday, November 26th, 5 to 7PM.

A SPECIAL HOLIDAY EVENING on Dec. 8th, will also allow the Gallery to be open late with tempting refreshments, a "red-dot room" of affordable gifts, and all the local shops throughout Hamilton-Wenham will make many alluring offers from 5 to 8:PM. There'll even be hay-rides and hot chocolate.

Last week of "Pieces" Exhibit

Visitors and second visitors have found this exhibit "beautiful...""wonderful..."etc., etc.!! What's your take on it? We here in the Gallery love living with it; will be very sorry to see it close: last day is November 4th. Pick-up dates begin Saturday the 5th. Do call for special hours after that, as my time will be balanced between removing this show and setting up the next, "The Beauty of the BEAST".

Dozens of applications have already arrived; don't forget my Deadline Day, Nov. 1, from 10 AM to 5PM.

Brett Angell's Chelsea Studio

Tucked away on a quiet street just beyond downtown Chelsea, Brett Angell's meticulously kept studio is arranged with areas for cutting, painting, storing exquisite Japanese papers, stacks of books (to cut?), packaging, arcives of artworks, and exhibition walls. I first saw Brett's dynamic and witty collages that he constructed inside cigarette packages, at a South End Open Studios' day. We will definitely exhibit a range of those comic-book-'noir' pieces, and also several of his highly Romantic 'mermaid' collages set into deep wooden boxes. (read more...) Brett cuts his tiny paper narratives with exactos, which he buys by the case, and often embellishes or repaints parts of his 'found' pictorials. All are ultimately sealed under glass...even those little cigarette box cut-out windows. He'll be joining us at the Sept 4th Opening, just before heading back to Japan on a mission for the MFA.

A visit to Newburyport and Ann McCrea

Up in her ateliere studio in the heart of downtown Newburyport, where she also conducts art classes for children (there were delightful ceramics examples by very young artists) Ann McCrea sorts out her collection of cross-cultural motifs, photos, folk art, antiquities, and 20th century sculpture images. Her combinations  are then layered between sheer threads, fabrics, and shreds of textured papers, resulting in pictures that draw the viewer intimately into rooms, or deeply through space, always balancing flux and repose. Although we anticipate the audience of this Exhibition to examine every surface very closely, perhaps none more so than these by Ann McCrea.

New Exhibition, "PIECES" is open

Our Grand Opening was a wonderful event, with crowds of visitors/art lovers/ and friends of the Artists...all of whom attended but three well-traveled out-of-Staters. We tried to introduce the Artists to each other throughout the afternoon, and hope we managed mostly! As usual, SeamS Couture, next door, helped the crowd flow by serving the drinks. I've had terrific feedback, and expect reviews and comments to continue. We remind you that the Regular gallery hours will now reconvene; Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 11AM to 6 PM.

A Studio Visit to Sheila Boss-Concannon

100_3833
100_3833
100_3839
100_3839
100_3840
100_3840

In her refitted garage Studio in Beverly, Sheila concocts her signature collages which combine vintage cut-outs from magazines, newspapers, and what-have-you, with her drawings and paintings, usually covering  a wrapped canvas surface. In spite of our little gallery spaces, I'm compelled to include a very large drawing of a quintessentially 1950's Summer Frock in paint and charcoal, on old papers and a bit of fabric 'flotsam'. Consequently, I'm choosing among her many themes a selection of images that include her highly personal and nostalgic pieces that celebrate the Garment. Some tiny pieces are referenced by little baby clothes, and others speak of women's favorites.

Karen Watson's elegant studio

Karen Watson
Karen Watson

I visited Karen in her spacious Lexington studio, which unsurprisingly was very neat and orderly...in fact, a beautiful environment for her pretty, narrative, and evocative collage 'stories'. Painstakingly snipping pieces of Victorian scrap-booking prints, antique photos, and a collection of italian Marbled Papers and Japanese Origami sheets. Her system of covering wood surfaces and ulimately encasing them in protective coatings create home furnishings, frames, and 2-D images. I've chosen several examples of each for the up-coming show, and also will include an irresistible collection of collaged keepsake boxes and printed cards.

Lauri Chertok's Ateliere

The carefully fitted top floor of Lauri Chertok's home in Beverly houses her massive collection of high-end fashion magazines...the 'fodder' for her remarkable cut-paper, non-objective collages. The magzines are chosen not for content, really, but for the quality of their Paper. She carves out elegant slivers of colors and gradating tonalities from magazine photographs, and arranges them into complex designs that seem calligraphic at times, or muti-layered stratifications of expressive implications...but always 'animated' and exquistely colored. She showed me her equally complex system of tracings of all those slivers of paper onto a vellum surface, which she numbers and uses as the Pattern for final gluing and placement.