The Old Sculpin Gallery of the Martha’s Vineyard Art Association joins forces this weekend with Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary for its sixth annual plein air show. This year’s theme is “Sanctuary: An Artist’s Perspective.” Artists will work outdoors to create art celebrating 200-acre Felix Neck and its wildlife.
The exhibit begins Friday, July 6, with an artist’s reception at Felix Neck’s Education and Camp Barn. The new post-and-beam building is home for the Sanctuary’s Fern and Feather Summer Camp and a future nature-based preschool camp. The exhibit moves to the Old Sculpin Gallery on Sunday, July 8, and continues until July 13. Included in the 25 to 30 works by both MVAA members and other on-Island artists are prints, multimedia, sculpture, sketches, paintings, pastels, and photographs.
The artist Rosenfeld has included a landscape oil of Felix Neck, and June Schoppe, who helped organize the exhibit, will have on view two paintings. One is “Swan Pond,” an oil of a Felix Neck landscape. Titled “Wrack Line,” the other features a black-bellied plover walking along the beach. A portrait of an owl by Janis Langley, who also helped organize the show, is called “Flight Pattern,” and Stephanie Reiter has contributed “Felix Neck.”
Photographer Lanny McDowell will display a number of works. “Blue Dasher” is a photo of a skimmer dragonfly, and one of “Amoy,” an American oystercatcher nesting at Katama Bay. “Merlin at the Mirror” shows a falcon at Norton Point, using a technique he calls “double takes,” in which he flips the image, then merges it with the original. His fourth entry is titled “Moth and Leaf.”
“I always consider the impression of the animal’s soul and integrity captured in a photo,” McDowell said. Subjects of other works in the show include a heron and a duck, as well as a variety of landscapes.
Other upcoming shows include “On the Waterfront,” running July 28 through August 3. The MVAA is collaborating with the Vineyard Trust, formerly the Martha’s Vineyard Preservation Trust, for this exhibit. A ticketed fundraiser, it includes tours of the Norton Point Boathouse and the Old Sculpin Gallery, as well as a preview of the exhibit. It is centered on the boatbuilder Manuel Schwartz, who worked in the building before it housed the gallery. It celebrates the history of the building and the wharf, including Schwartz’s catboat. Refreshments will be served.
Artist Kara Taylor will collaborate with the gallery to select work for the all-Island juried show “She.” Portraying real or abstract work on a woman’s theme, it will run Sept. 8 through 14, with a reception on Sept. 9.
Gallery manager Colleen Daly said, “I am personally extremely excited to work with such an inventive and inspired artist as Kara Taylor.” In the past, the MVAA has collaborated with The Trustees of Reservations, Polly Hill Arboretum, the FARM Institute, and Martha’s Vineyard Museum.
Located in Edgartown, the Old Sculpin Gallery has housed the MVAA since 1954, and the building, which has also served as a sail loft, a whale factory, a grain store, and Schwartz’s boatbuilding shed, is more than 240 years old. The MVAA’s mission is to serve and enhance the Vineyard’s cultural life.
