Jim Mullan - Vintage Birds

Jim Mullan begins by hand painting each bird, to which he adds a variety of vintage pieces. The unusual relic’s he uses in his sculptures, such as croquet balls, binoculars and old toys, give each inspiring bird its own personality. Objects that were cast aside as useless are used in his designs to demonstrate the fragile balance between nature and industry.

The birds give life to the once forgotten pieces of yesterday. We invite the observer to find warmth, history, and humor in each and every bird sculpture.

The vintage bird collection is on display in Orleans, as part of our Flight: Birds in Art exhibit. See the collection on our website if you can't make it in person!

Paul Sumner

Paul Sumner's sculpture has evolved over the years to become an expression of all his passions, not just his love of the medium of wood. He began more than 20 years ago as a traditional wood craftsman, making jewelry boxes and furniture. His interests branched out to explore the textural possibilities of weed, then to color, and on to the addition of other materials until his work became truly mixed-media.

Paul's most recent work involves combining metal with wood. An avid collector, Paul finds antique tins to be outstanding for their color and pattern. The tins also allow him the opportunity to explore the possibility of introducing words into the pieces. He likes to hint at meaning or humor using text he extracts from his tins.

His mixed-media bird sculptures are part of our "Flight: Birds in Art" collection, currently showing in Orleans (through July 19). His birds can be seen on our website.

Linda Chamberlain: Flight

Vintage elements: glass lenses, printer's type, furniture hardware, clock faces are just some of the elements used in creating these theaters by Linda Chamberlain. In the studio, found objects take a direction of their own and, through the assemblage process, evolve into their own form.

Special painting processes unite all elements. Various woodworking equipment: the lathe, router and scroll saw, are employed to develop architectural elements and the painting supports. Texturing and transfer techniques, developed by the artist, contribute to the dialogue.

Chamberlain draws upon the simplification associated with the Arts and Crafts Period. She creates works that eliminate the superfluous in life, reducing reality to the essentials.

These pieces are part of the "Flight: Birds in Art" show currently in Orleans. Linda is represented at the Left Bank Small Works and Jewelry gallery in Wellfleet.

Her collection of bird studies are shown on our website.

James Carter on "Flight"

"My focus on painting birds dates back to when I was a boy and watching my grandfather, an accomplished wildlife painter. They became my first subject matter. Unlike your typical wildlife painter, I bring my birds to an interior world and pose them with inanimate props such as cameras, books and boxes. They therefore become both a metaphor and the subject of the piece. As shadows are an important part of the piece I use both airbrush and traditional wash painting to give my work that dimensional aspect. In the over-all look of my work I am focused on line and balance in the piece. I want the viewer to see not just a bird but a player in the subject's story." - James Carter

In addition to studying at the Silvermine College of Art in New Canaan, Connecticut and the Maryland Institute of Art, James Carter considered becoming an architect. He found that working with line and form, however, was more important to him than creating buildings. His architectural training is evident in his clearly structured compositions, as well as in the use of architectural details in his work, including mantels and doorways, graph-like grids and crosshatchings as seen through surveyors' instruments.

Both collections (Wellfleet and Orleans) are shown on our website.

Christina Goodman on "Flight"

Christina Goodman's brooches, pendants and earrings are miniature paintings reminiscent of Renaissance artwork. Most of these miniatures are landscapes influenced by Giovanni Bellini, Lorenzo Lotto, Dosso Dossi and Jan Van Eyck, but over the last few years she has begun watching birds from her studio near the San Francisco Bay and is now incorporating them into her work.

Christina was born in Pisa, Italy, to American parents. She grew up near Washington D.C. and New Orleans, attended Colorado College, and received a studio art degree from the University of California at Santa Cruz. Christina later moved to New York where she studied fashion design at Parsons School of Design and worked for several years as a decorative artist specializing in gilding and painted finishes.

Christina began her design business in 1990. Her knowledge of decorative art and her passion for Renaissance painting merged into the creation of her own line of hand painted miniatures and jewelry. She continues to study and utilize 14th - 16th century gilding and painting techniques, as well as Renaissance frame design.

Collections from both Orleans and Wellfleet galleries are shown on our website.

Ellen Granter on "Flight"

Ellen Granter shared some thoughts with us about the work she's brought to our "Flight" exhibit (at Left Bank in Orleans through July 19). Here's are some biographical bits we thought you'd like:

"Although I have painted and created artwork since I was old enough to draw on my parent’s kitchen cupboards, my formal training was limited to a few drawing courses during college. I grew up in upstate New York and received a BA in Political Science and a MA in Chinese History from the University of Vermont. I studied Mandarin Chinese for seven years and lived in both Hong Kong and Beijing. I currently work part-time as a book designer for an educational textbook publisher, creating instructional design that helps children learn math, social studies, and science. Working from a tiny spare bedroom in my house near Boston, with one wall jammed full of art books and magazines, my artwork is now shown in numerous galleries across the Unites States and is present in many corporate collections. I am an avid birder, a slow hiker, an even slower runner, an obsessive sketcher, an intrepid traveller, a passionate environmentalist, and an aunt who enjoys spoiling her many nephews and nieces with elaborate pirate treasure hunt schemes."

Don't forget to visit our website to see more of Ellen's paintings