Category: Exhibitions

Come join us at the Marblehead Arts Association annual Member Exhibit. Both shows will be held at the MAA’s lovely Hooper Mansion galleries at 8 Hooper Street, Marblehead, MA. The show will run from the Opening Reception on November 13 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. until the last day of the exhibit on December 24, Christmas Eve.

The Member Exhibit showcases the diverse talent of the members of the association including paintings done in oils, acrylics, pastels, drawings, photographs, etc. The artwork encompasses realism to abstract and everything in between. You are sure to find something that suits your fancy.

My entries in the Member Exhibit are: Midcentury Merriment and Snow Globe Christmas, both Christmas themed paintings. Midcentury Merriment, acrylic on canvas, 11″ x 21″ framed, $500. This painting was inspired by a black and white photo I came across showing the Town Center in Danvers, MA, circa 1955. I imagined what it would look like with all the colorful Christmas lights on the big tree and in the shop windows. Showing it on a wet, rainy night gave me even more options for reflections. Danvers Square has not changed all that much since those days.

Snow Globe Christmas, acrylic on wood panel, 17″ x 17″ framed, $600 is the original artwork for the Salem Holiday Market in 2018. The market was held at Old Town Hall and the painting shows that lovely brick antique building on a snowy winter night with little mice enjoying the holiday. I got the idea to make the whole scene take place in a snow globe, inspired by my granddaughter’s snow globe collection.

While you are the MAA, don’t forget to visit their lovely MAA Artisan’s Shop for those last-minute gifts!

The Danvers Art Association Fall Member Exhibit will be on display September 20 through October 9, 2022. The Danvers Gallery is located at 105 Elliot Street, Danvers, MA in a renovated 1910 two-room school house. The opening reception is on Friday, Sept. 30 from 7-9:00 p.m.

I have two entries in the show. Midcentury Merriment, acrylic, 10″ x 20″ framed was inspired by an old black and white photo I came across showing Danvers Square circa 1960. The area is decked out for the holidays, and has not changed all that much from the present day look of the square.

My second entry is in the Small Works category. Writer’s Block, acrylic, 6″ x 6″ on 1-1/2″ thick gallery wrapped canvas. This colorful graphic style painting was inspired by a much larger 48″ x 40″ three-panel painting I created for the Art in Giving Gallery, www.artingiving.com The small size makes it easy to fit into your decor to brighten up any room of your house. It is wired to hang on the wall, or it can easily stand by itself on a shelf.

Art in Giving raises funds for childhood cancer research through the sale of fine arts.

Talented artists exhibit their work with Art in Giving and fifty percent of the purchase price of their artwork sold goes directly to talented cancer researchers working on breakthrough ideas to identify causes of and cures for brain tumors and gliomas. 

 To date, Art in Giving has granted $1.4 million in seed funding to researchers at Stanford University Medical School, Yale University School of Medicine, Barrow Neurological Institute, University of Pennsylvania, The Broad Institute, Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins University, Mass General Hospital, and Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

Our business model increases the amount of money targeted for pediatric cancer research, a severely underfunded area.

• People buy from us rather than a commercial gallery, and still make donations to their favorite charities
• Interior designers purchase art for their clients while supporting innovative research
• Companies purchase art using facility management and gift, not philanthropy, budgets

 With Art in Giving, children with cancer and their families, pediatric cancer researchers, artists, art enthusiasts, and corporations all benefit.  

The recent autumn weather inspired me to paint a picture of golden birch trees I photographed last autumn while taking a drive with my husband. The morning light shone through the leaves and created a golden glow and the colorful leaves sparkled like jewels in the crisp breeze. My new painting, Birch Mountain Morning is painted on wooden board with acrylic paint, 36″ x 36″ framed.

Three Exhibitions Opening this Friday, Sept 9
Salem Arts New Exhibitions Celebrate Departed Member Rebecca Dunn DeVries, Fall/Halloween Season and New Work by Paul Nathan

Our annual Artoberfest Exhibit is opening this Friday, September 9.  Salem Arts Association asked our local artists to explore Salem’s history with witchcraft, religion, and Halloween.  The resulting exhibit represents their diverse interpretations of the theme and how, by bringing them together, we create a collective understanding of it.

My painting, Autumn Marsh was juried into the show! It is done in acrylic paint on gallery-wrapped canvas, 12″ x 24″. It was painted one perfect autumn morning — crisp and cool, but with warm honey sunshine. I met a group of friends at the Jones River Marsh in Gloucester, MA and we sat together and painted the view. Somehow, even though we were all side by side, we each came away with something different. That is what I love about painting with other artists; each person percolates the same scene through her own heart. And painting en plein air provides an immediacy for me that no other method can. It is one of my favorite things to do.

Salem Arts Association is also hosting Arcane Nonesuch an exhibition of work by departed member artist, co-owner of Scarlet Letter Press, former Salem Arts Association Board Member, and much loved member of the Salem community Rebecca Dunn DeVries.  All proceeds from this exhibition will benefit her daughter Oona. 

The exhibition is sponsored by Pamplemousse who will be providing refreshments for the reception.  Pamplemousse is a European inspired gourmet market with lots of New England charm.  They strive to bring their customers the best products around including fine wines, craft beer, top shelf-liquors, gourmet food, kitchen gadgets and decor.  Pamplemousse has locations at 185 Essex Street in Salem, MA, and 26 Haven Street in Everett, MA.

We also have a new exhibit of the work of artist Paul Nathan.  It’s always a treat seeing Paul’s delightful, whimsical and inventive art work.  We’re very happy to present new work in his gallery! 

Exhibition Dates: September 3 – November 6, 2022

Opening Reception: Friday, September 9, 6-8pm

Featuring a music performance by Ryan Kelleher.

Salem Arts Galleries and Shop are located at 159 Derby Street adjacent to the Salem Maritime National Historic Site in Salem, MA. Regular gallery hours are 12-6 on Saturdays and Sundays.

Each year during the Danvers Family Festival, one of the events is the Danvers Places Show, sponsored by the Danvers Art Association. This year the exhibit was held at the Peabody Institute Library of Danvers. All the paintings were of places in the beautiful town of Danvers. I was thrilled when my painting, Midcentury Merriment, was chosen by viewers for the People’s Choice Award!

The painting is a view of Danvers Center at Christmastime circa 1960, complete with the old shops that once graced the town. Classic autos are parked on the street, decorations and a huge Christmas tree brighten the scene. I am not sure what appealed to the people who voted for my painting. Was it nostalgia? Was it the warmth of the Holiday season? Maybe it was cooling to look at a wintry picture in the midst of summer heat. Whatever it was, Thank You Danvers!

The library is located at 15 Sylvan Street, Danvers, MA and the paintings can be viewed during normal library hours.

The Marblehead Festival of Arts will take place July 1 through 4, 2022 in venues all around the center of Marblehead. Go to www.marbleheadfestival.org to find out details and schedules!

I am excited after several years of Covid to finally be back as part of this fun event. This year I have three paintings in the festival. My painting, Skyline: Boston, acrylic, 28″ x 40″ framed, has been juried into the Painting Exhibit which will take place at Abbot Hall on Washington Street. This painting was inspired by a photograph I took of the Boston skyline one day while I was stuck in endless traffic. I have painted several small studies of the image before finally creating this larger one. The sun was just in the right place to make striking shadows on the buildings and made it, in hindsight, the luckiest traffic of my life.

My painting for the Senior Exhibit is titled Writer’s Block, acrylic, 6″ x 6″. It is done in the Op Art style which is so much fun to play with, in cool shades of blues, purples and greens. I had come upon some of my old dip pens that I used for penmanship in elementary school, and the idea jumped into my mind. The painting is on a chunky canvas which can stand alone, and it is also wired to hang on the wall. The Senior Exhibit will hang in the Unitarian Universalist Church on Mugford Street.

The third painting was done with my favorite MFoA event, Paint the Town, a plein air painting day. This year we enjoyed perfect weather for artists to fan out over the town and find a good local scene to paint. I went to Devereux Beach where scores of people were enjoying the lovely weather under an array of colorful beach umbrellas. Devereux Beach Umbrellas, acrylic, 12″ x 24″ is a scene I have had in my mind to paint for a while, but this is the first time since I had the idea that Paint the Town took place on a good beach day. It was particularly fun because I love working with bright colors. The Paint the Town Exhibit will be shown upstairs in the Marblehead Arts Association building at 8 Hooper Street, Marblehead.

If you come to the Festival, I hope you will take the time to also enjoy the Sculpture, Mixed Media, Drawing, Writing, Youth, Logo, and other events.

Swampscott Art Association is proud to announce the Spring Member Exhibit which is being held at ReachArts in Swampscott, where I am the Featured Artist Registry Member this month. Here is how ReachArts describes themselves on their website:

“ReachArts is an artistic hub in Swampscott where the community creates, collaborates, exhibits, performs, educates and learns.

We transcend difference in culture, age, ethnicity and economy by fostering a passion for artistic expression that can be shared, respected and appreciated by all.”

My entry in the exhibit is my painting, Knowles Landing (acrylic, 16″x22″) which I painted en plein air at the beautiful Knowles Landing in Gloucester, MA. My husband Tom and I spent an idyllic afternoon there on a hot summer day. Tom sat in the shade and read while I painted as fast as I could before the tide went out and the sun changed position too much! Just as I finished folding up my easel and was closing the paint palette, those two beautiful birds flew into view. It is as if they saw that my painting needed a little bit more!

ReachArts, 89 Burrill St, Swampscott, MA from May 1 to May 11, 2022. The opening reception will be held Sunday, May 1 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.

The “Go Figure” exhibit at Salem Arts Association, is an exhibit of figurative artwork, work that represents something in the real world.  Although the main focus of the exhibit is traditional and non-traditional images of people including portraits and nudes – landscapes, cityscapes and still-lives are also on display.

I am proud that my painting, Moondance (acrylic, 8.5″ x 6/5″ framed, $135.) was juried into the exhibit. It is a joyous little painting that celebrates dance and movement and simply being alive!

#SalemArts is located at 159 Derby Street, Salem, MA 01970 in the lovely antique yellow house right beside Derby Wharf where the famous Friendship is moored. The Salem Arts Association Gallery is open weekends from noon till 6:00 p.m. and this exhibit runs from the reception on April 9 until May 14, 2022.