Arts & Leisure
A must see: Stonecrop Gallery features fine art photography in a unique space
By Melissa Wood
Gallery owner and photographer Dana Berenson — with gallery dog Boo Radley — is seen here outside Stonecrop Gallery on Shore Road.
Photo by Melissa Wood
Dana Berenson's "Iron Man" was taken of a mural that once adorned the side of a building in Boston’s Downtown Crossing.
Courtesy of Dana Berenson
Jumping Bridge, Martha's Vineyard, 2005 by Thomas Gearty
Courtesy photo
CAPE NEDDICK - On the rocky ledge jutting up on the Atlantic Ocean side of Shore Road just at the Cape Neddick and Ogunquit line, small, yellow flowers called stonecrop blossomed in the dry soil in crags that cut into the cliff face.
Artist Grace Merrill decided in the early 1920s to build her house here, along the cliff with a studio facing the cliff that rises abruptly behind the house where she could paint those flowers. She built the house out of pieces from dismantled houses she salvaged from northern Maine - a barn's pine timbers for a 24-foot-high great room, a staircase and stone fireplace from an 18th-century home, and doors, windows and wood from all over - and named her new home Stonecrop.
Since that time, both the name and tradition of women artists making it their home, workspace and gallery have stuck, and the newest owner, photographer Dana Berenson, continues Stonecrop's legacy with a newly renovated gallery space featuring fine art photography.
Berenson, who also runs a professional photography business, La Muse Photography, said owning the gallery is a dream come true.
"My husband and I have always dreamed about having a house by the ocean, and I've always dreamed about having a gallery," said Berenson who, along with husband Matt and their Australian cattle dog mix, Boo Radley, also lives in Brookline, Mass. "The minute I walked into the house I was home. It was absolutely perfect."
Over last winter, Berenson and her husband renovated the gallery, located in its own space in the lower level of the house, where visitors can park and walk in from Shore Road. They electrically rewired the space, putting in new shelving and copper pipe from which works of art can be hung.
"We just really wanted to make it a beautiful space," said Berenson.
Inside the gallery, the fresh paint and new fixtures contrast with the cliff that forms the back wall, creating a unique mixture of the indoors and outdoors as a backdrop for the works displayed within.
"These cliffs actually run through and under," explained Berenson. "It's just part of the house."
Berenson, who is the first photographer to own the space, said the gallery is one of the few in the area to feature only fine art photography. She said she wants the gallery to have a range where anybody can walk in and find something they like - featuring not just well-known artists but also beginners in a variety of prices.
The gallery is currently hosting a mixed show of Berenson's work and a new series of color prints from Martha's Vineyard by New England photographer Thomas Gearty, whose work is shown all over the world, Berenson said.
"I feel like we've got great art on the walls," she said. "I'm really excited about the artists."
In July, the gallery will display black-and-white prints by Henry Horenstein, a Boston artist whom Berenson said she considers the Ansel Adams of today, and in August the gallery will feature Maine photographer Caleb Charland who, in describing his work, states he uses "everyday objects and fundamental forces to illustrate my own experiences with wonder."
Berenson said that each year she hopes to host at least one local Maine artist in the gallery.
"My goal for this gallery is to be the premiere spot people can come to for photography," she said. Berenson said she hoped to become involved in the local arts scene and possibly host a photography slam for new, young local photographers.
In describing her own work, Berenson said she wants people to see beauty in everyday scenes that they may not have recognized at first glance.
"I like to photograph things that people would walk by and not necessarily see how beautiful they are until they take a second look," said Berenson, whose photograph Iron Man was taken of a mural on the side of a building in Boston's busy Downtown Crossing that nobody else seemed to notice. The next time she came down to the spot by the old Paramount Theatre, the mural was gone, painted over.
Berenson said she believes anywhere you go there's something to photograph.
"It drives my husband crazy when we go on road trips because I'll always say, ‘Stop the car,'" she said.
Berenson said she hopes people will check out the gallery, which first opened last summer but will be open for its first full season in 2007. Stonecrop is just outside Perkins Cove and 100 yards from the Ogunquit Museum of American Art, which this summer is featuring works by Ansel Adams.
"When people come into the gallery they love it," said Berenson.
Stonecrop Gallery is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursday through Monday, or by appointment, until the first weekend in October. For more information, visit http://www.stonecropgallery.com/.
