Arts & Leisure
Area art associations open for the season
By Rose Safran
YORK and OGUNQUIT - The York Art Association (YAA) and the Barn Gallery, which hosts the work of Ogunquit Art Association (OAA) members have mounted their first shows of the 2007 season.
The annual YAA Spring Show, consisting of members' works of art, fills the walls in the Route 1-A York Art Association building. It is a varied show with a wide range of art, and I was happy to note, more oil paintings than in previous years. Several ribbons in the form of merit awards have been applied to some of the works, including Barbara Heinz's Matisse-inspired painting of colorful objects which she said just "came out of her head" and Luan Hume's charming pastel of a Laudholm Farm barn - I also liked her pastel still life of a potted geranium - as well as one of Diana Altukaim's interesting weavings. Noteworthy were Gail Claes's Brave Boat Harbor marshes and her floral "Touch of Pink."
At this show are many local views and landmarks in a variety of media and with many interpretations. The organization, which consists of professionals and amateurs, is open to members, there are no restrictions for joining and considerable "new blood" has entered in recent years, which has added vitality to the organization. Additionally, the organization was the recent recipient of a generous bequest, the funds of which will eventually be applied to ongoing events and activities.
At the Barn Gallery, I was fortunate in meeting one of the showcase artists, namely, a youthful and enthusiastic Russel Whiten who was manning the shop. Portland-born, with a background that includes studies at the Art Students' League in New York City as well as under Maine resident Edward Betts and at the local Heartwood College of Art under Richard Lethem and Dewitt Hardy, this young artist has had interesting training exposure. In his works, we see some excellent portraiture as well as fine figurative works of nudes. Clearly, however, he likes departing from representational art and undertaking imaginative, undefined approaches as in his mixed media abstracts consisting of colorful shapes.
He says, "I just love seeing the connections, how one thing flows into another." Asked whether these works - and some are huge, highly textural, with bulky blobs included will last (now, that's asked, too, of the work of the brilliant Anselm Keiffer!), he smiles, talking principally about process.
Kittery photographer Tom Hibschman is also showcasing. Interestingly, the artist's winning submission - "Moss Mac" - which was included in the Portland Museum of Art Biennial is on view, along with the actual moss-infiltrated Mac computer that inspired it (and the bugs it attracts!) Among Hibshman's works are some wonderful photographs and assemblages which represent glimpses of our society's artifacts, or remainders thereof - for example "Coke Was It," in which a deteriorating bottle is set against shells. Lots of worn out, formerly useful, objects and structures make for interesting art here, including such local items as a Brave Boat Harbor trestle, and the Chauncey Creek pier.
On June 21 at 7:30 p.m., Showcase artists Hibschman and Whitten will compare their freewheeling use of different media and subjects in an artists' gallery talk.
In the main gallery, The Ogunquit Art Association "Expressions" includes the work of member artists, all of whom have been juried into the organization. With no more than two works submitted by any one artist, this becomes a large and varied exhibit with a variety of diversified talent reflected - making selections almost impossible. I liked the simple, clean, clear forms created by Chistos Calivas, Gail Sauter's pastels, Richard Lethem's acrylic of a girl with a small bird on her head. Too, I put several check marks next to Dustan Knight's watercolor of the York River - and Hara Harding's gold monoprint "Cadmium Day" drew me to it, as did Don Gorvett's "Wharf Remnants" - an acrylic and ink, not a reduction woodcut. York's Beverly Hallam included paper foils - called "3 Curls" - created with pigmented ink on archival paper.
The "Anything Goes" exhibit shows nicely in the lower gallery's renovated space with refinished stairwell and new flooring in a deep orange which adds a pinkish tone to the walls. You can't miss Jeff Briggs "Frog" set right on the floor - yes, it's a very recognizable but out-sized frog with brilliant color - made of fiberglass resin. Also, here was another one of Kim Bernard encaustic works of art - wonderful images of leaves, blades of grass in combination set against solid backgrounds, the one here was called "Botanical Record" - there was another, slightly different one, "Blade Relics" in the Expressions exhibit, too. Nancy Davison went political with "Red Herrings" - quite a lot of them, she notes!
The Barn Gallery's sculpture court includes invited New England sculptors with a variety of new media and approaches as well as conventional ones to outdoor art. Among the interesting inclusions is a work by Derryll M. Brudzinski, creator of "Outside the Box," a mixed media construction consisting of a series of small symmetric boxes that include shredded money, pieces of wood, meshing and other toss-away stuff; huge, heavy, attention-getting it's flanked by logs on its sides.
Note to Artists: In Portsmouth, the current show at the New Hampshire Art Association's Robert Lincoln Levy Gallery on State Street will be followed by "Vision & Voice - Art as Social & Political Commentary," an open juried exhibition in which the artist must submit work reflecting visions or presentations of social, political, environmental, religious or other commentary. Artists will have an opportunity, too, to comment on their work. Submissions will be juried on July 2 and the exhibit will run from July 6 to Aug. 6. For further information or to obtain a brochure, call (603) 431-4230 or visit http://www.nhartassociatiojn.org/.
