Artworks by six members of the Martha’s Vineyard Art Association are on display at the association’s Old Sculpin Gallery in Edgartown. Stephanie Reiter, a new member this year, has 65 small landscapes and still lifes in the front gallery room. A retrospective of work by longtime member Ann Howes hangs in the middle room, and Steve London’s Japanese fish prints cover the walls of the rear room. Three additional artists — Teresa Yuan, Cynthia Woehrle, and Amy Thompson Size — fill the rest of the main gallery room. Their work will be on view through Friday, August 28.
Ms. Reiter’s prolific work is characterized by the use of a bright palette and what appear to be quick captures of mostly Island scenes. One of her handsome little still lifes, “White Pitcher and Oranges” is reminiscent of Cézanne. And in fact, she says in her artist’s statement, “What Cézanne called ‘petite sensations,’ the little feeling(s) you get from being alive in the world, hopefully translate onto the canvas and take their place as such,” present the viewer with some of the same emotions.
Ms. Howes has exhibited her watercolors extensively in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New Orleans, among other locales. “Capturing nature with watercolors in some of the ‘forgotten corners’ around me satisfies my own inner convictions,” says the artist, who divides her time between King of Prussia, Pa., and West Tisbury. She combines a delicacy of touch with an appreciation for detail in works like “Winter Pool” and “Work Bench, Menemsha.”
Mr. London, who divides his time between the Island and Maui, catches the live fish that he then translates into masterful monotypes on Japanese rice paper in a process called gyotaku. He mixes nontoxic paint on the captured fish, makes the print, then eats the fish. Nor does he embellish his work after printing, except to paint the fish’s eye. “Cuttyhunk Tautog” sparkles with gold, and “First Bonita of the Season 8/7/15” is as fresh as the day he caught its subject.
Ms. Yuan’s paintings are done in acrylic, and by applying a heavy impasto of bold colors, she captures an abstract sense in her landscapes and still lifes. Born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan, but now an Island resident, she studied painting at New York’s Art Student’s League and graduated from the Pratt Institute.
The moon and sky figure prominently in the paintings on display by Ms. Woehrle, who resides in Worcester when she is not on-Island. She has also exhibited at Art on the Line, where she was exhibition designer and conceptualist for Arts Worcester, an organization that promotes local contemporary artists there, free of charge to the public. “Big Sky,” “Super Moon over Chilmark” and “Twilight with Crescent Moon” all celebrate the drama of dusk and dark skies in her work.
Ms. Size offers one of the few portraits on exhibit in “Minuteman,” with its strong lines and colors. An Edgartown resident, she teaches art at the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School in West Tisbury.
Located across from the Chappy ferry slip in Edgartown, the Old Sculpin Gallery provides the home for the Martha’s Vineyard Art Association, which celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2014. The association continues to raise money to meet its annual goal of $25,000 that will be used to expand children’s classes and host more invitational exhibitions that offer space to nonmember artists.
Six MVAA Artists, Old Sculpin Gallery, 58 Dock Street, Edgartown, through Friday, August 28. For information, see marthasvineyardartassociation.org.
