While Louisa Gould may be facilitating safe social distancing practices at her Main Street gallery in Vineyard Haven, that doesn’t mean that the walls and shelves aren’t fully stocked with a variety of work by dozens of artists. Currently the spacious gallery is hosting two shows concurrently. One — “Midsummer” — features work by eight artists representing a variety of media. The other – “Summer Stories” – is a three-person show of work by two of the gallery’s most popular painters and one ceramicist.
“I’m doing more shows this year,” said Gould, who’s found that her loyal clientele is visiting regularly both in person and online. She adds that she sold a number of the paintings included in both exhibits online before she even had a chance to hang them.
The “Midsummer” show is populated by a number of artists who have been represented by the gallery for some time, as well as two newcomers – Susan Cabral and Murray Taylor.
Cabral creates quiet scenes of Island life in oil. The work on view at Louisa Gould’s includes a handful of paintings of unoccupied rowboats at rest on the water and two scenes of ocean surf. Her images speak of solitude and peace.
Taylor has also contributed Vineyard scenes to the show, although his work represents a slightly different perspective. For the show the artist has captured the rugged quality of the Island in views of the Aquinnah Cliffs and the Gay Head Lighthouse.
“Midsummer” also features new paintings by John Holladay, Nick Paciorek, Teek Eaton-Koch, and Rick Fleury, as well as botanical prints from Peggy Turner Zablotny and ceramics by Suzanne Hill.
For “Summer Stories,” Gould selected three artists whose work, as she sees it, represents the look and feel of summer. While ceramicist Jennifer McCurdy works in abstracts, all of her intricate, curvilinear forms mimic nature in some way. During the long quarantine months, McCurdy has used the downtime to work out new forms and designs, many of which are on display at the gallery. Paul Beebe’s seascapes capture the majestic nature of the Vineyard in all of its ripe summer glory.
Photorealist painter Linda Besse loves animals so much that she has traveled to all seven continents to observe all types of species up close. “If you’re going to be painting wildlife, it really helps to see animals in their natural habitat,” she says. The artist is the daughter of Alden Besse of Grace Episcopal Church in Vineyard Haven. The elder Besse was a beloved figure on the Vineyard for many years, and the Besse family’s Island roots go back many generations. Linda spent summers as a child on the Vineyard, and has continued to travel back and forth from her home in Washington State several times a year.
While on Island, Besse often chooses shorebirds as subjects for her work. Among her recent contributions to the show are remarkably lifelike images of turnstones, oystercatchers, plovers, and other birds captured, appropriately, foraging for food against impressive backdrops of sparkling ocean waves. In these paintings, the artist manages to depict both the majesty of the ocean and the delicate nature of the creatures who depend upon it.
One of the most impressive of Besse’s new paintings is an image of an osprey returning to its nest after a hunt: Every branch of the massive structure atop a pole is meticulously rendered in the artist’s photorealist style.
All of the bird paintings were done from onsite sketches and photos taken on Chappaquiddick. Besse notes that she was fortunate to have access to nesting areas along the shore during the spring and early summer. “My husband loves to fish,” she says. “He always gets beach passes for Wasque. It’s been great going out there before the crowds arrive. It’s a fantastic area for shorebirds.”
Both “Midsummer” and “Summer Stories” will be on view simultaneously through Sept. 8, when the latter will be replaced by a very special exhibit featuring work from the annual Mystic International Group show. With the Mystic Museum of Art in Mystic, Conn., temporarily closed due to COVID, Gould will be exhibiting the work of a dozen or so of the country’s foremost maritime painters in her gallery throughout September and October. Work by nine of the featured artists is currently available online at louisagould.com.
“Midsummer,” an exhibit of work by Nick Paciorek, Teek Eaton-Koch, Murray Taylor, Rick Fleury, Peggy Turner Zablotny, John Holladay, Susan Cabral, and Suzanne Hill, will be on display through Oct. 1. “Summer Stories,” featuring new work by Linda Besse, Jennifer McCurdy, and Paul Beebe, will hang through Sept 1. The Louisa Gould Gallery at 54 Main St., Vineyard Haven, is open daily from 11 to 5, and by appointment for private viewing.