Ruel, Weldon, and Gibbs open at Field Gallery

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"Fire," by Colin Rue. — Photo courtesy of Field Gallery

In a new show at the Field Gallery, painters Wendy Weldon and Colin Ruel are joined by metal sculptor Charles Gibbs. In addition to her characteristic barn paintings, Ms. Weldon is exhibiting an abstract series inspired by a month-long visit this winter to the Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. She has titled the collection “Color.” A Menemsha native, Mr. Ruel debuts at the Field Gallery this season with a series of evocative landscapes. Mr. Gibbs’ whimsical work on display employs found metal in wall pieces and small sculptures.

Ms. Weldon’s “Color” series is well named. Her vivid, muscular acrylic paintings often incorporate a gold finish for added sheen. “East Gate of Angkor Thom” and “Phnom Bakheng Arch” illustrate how the artist employs scarlet shades of red to powerful effect in works that feel both architectural and abstract. Barns have long inspired Ms. Weldon, who exhibited at North Water Street Gallery for a number of years before moving to the Field Gallery. She combines round rock forms with rectangular, gabled shapes in “Imaginary Barns Near the Pond,” and in “Night Sky,” a red-roofed green barn seems to float in a reddish landscape that includes another smaller red structure in the background.

A musician who once toured with islander Willy Mason, Mr. Ruel now devotes his time to painting; he shares a studio with his wife, jeweler Nettie Kent, also a native islander. He often uses ink in Vineyard-inspired landscapes like “Blue Fire Mirror” and possibly “Orange Mirror Shore,” where a thin white line marks the transition from water to foliage. Several of his serene landscapes surprise with white, geyser-like eruptions, as in “Fire Mirror Shore” and “Fire.” Although Mr. Ruel, who makes his own frames, uses acrylics, he works on birch panels, thinning his paint to an almost watercolor consistency so that the wood grain of the panels participates in the composition, adding subtlety and texture.

Also showing is Berkeley, Calif., native Charles Gibbs, who started making sculpture when he was 15 years old, using the junk metal he found in his father’s workshop. After moving East, Mr. Gibbs settled for a while outside Boston in a house where he discovered a basement filled with machine parts. His charming sculptures, employing gears, knobs, and other metal parts, resulted.

“I do two types of work — stylized animals, birds, and fish, and more abstract pieces that often feature wheels, boat hulls, and house forms,” the artist says. He is primarily self-taught, and benefits from his experience repairing cars and houses. “I usually work with found metal — I love the patinas and distress of the scrap metal I find on the road, and the gears and levers from discarded typewriters — but also new metal stock (especially for new outdoor pieces), and frequently include pieces of wood, bone, and other found materials,” he says. He resides with his wife, painter Charlotte Andry Gibbs, in Pepperell.

Wendy Weldon, Colin Ruel, and Charles Gibbs, Field Gallery, 1050 State Road, West Tisbury, through August 1. For information, see fieldgallery.com.