Gregory Kammerer and the book that became a landscape

When Gregory Kammerer goes to large retrospectives of painters like Turner and Homer, he's drawn to the little glass cases, full of pens and sketchbooks. “I think what comes through is an honesty, or lack of self consciousness about what they're doing,” he says of the sketchbooks. “They're suggestive and beautiful in their simplicity.”

It's not surprising, then, that Gregory (who has long blurred the line between painting and sculpture) has created a series of paintings using books as the canvas.

When he first started doing the books, he called them sketchbooks and did not intend for them to be fully developed paintings. Now, some books are used like a panel, while others have hints of text – either visible through the landscape, or left unpainted within the composition.

“I do a lot of sanding, and sometimes I'll go through layers of pages,” Gregory explains. “I have this one painting, titled The Book That Tried to Become a Landscape. When it went from a book to a landscape, it stalled midway. It's half landscape, half words.”

Gregory likes mixing representational landscape with what comes out being more of an abstraction. “I love to show the text, which reminds you it's a book,” he says. “But I can't sacrifice a painting just to have the text show through.”

He finds the books at yard sales and in used book stores, and even when the text isn't visible, he lets the words guide him in the composition.

Gregory was a literature major, so there has always been something about books - the words on the page, the stories, the way it feels to hold them. He's found he's not alone. People who are drawn to books, like the idea of having a book that's been transformed into something else.

Like books, these paintings are meant to be picked up. “They have a tactile quality to them, as opposed to a painting that goes on the wall and stays there,” he says. “They are completely protected. You could spill a cup of coffee on them.”

He won't give away what his process is, but he does say he used to restore wooden boats and learned about materials through that work. When he started exploring using books as a surface for paintings, he tried beeswax as a stiffener, but they didn't hold up. Since then he's found a method that stands up to light, heat and moisture.

“I like doing them so much,” he says. “If I could work that small all the time, I probably would. In some ways, painting small is harder than painting large. My intention is to give the sense of infinite space. When you have a large panel, that's already there. When you have a tiny book, depth is a harder thing to achieve.”

See more of Gregory Kammerer's paintings HERE

Annie Doyle

Meet Annie Doyle, whose woodblock prints capture the connection of sand and sea here on Cape Cod, documenting a way of life on our shoreline.

Born in New Bedford, Annie was introduced to art at age four at Friends Academy, where she was taught by friends of her parents. When Annie and her family moved to the shores of Oyster pond in Chatham, those friends followed one summer to teach at the Ole Village School on School Street. Annie was one of the students.

Just down the street from her house lived husband and wife artists - a photographer and a painter. Dorothy, the painter, taught 10 year old Annie to paint in oils. She continued to pursue the arts in high school and college.

Soon after college Annie returned to Chatham, where she is now married to a fisherman.  

"Life around the shores became a normal activity of clamming, quahoging, scalloping, and offshore longlining," she says of her return to Chatham. She worked on an oyster buy-boat, meeting many watermen who made their living from the shores and the sea. (If you don't know what an oyster buy-boat is, neither did we. Thank goodness for Wikipedia.)

On the Cape, Annie met Lois Griffel, who taught at and owned the Cape Cod School of Art in Provincetown. It was the beginning of a great friendship and a return to art.

The wood prints are hand pressed on paper to preserve some of the memories of our precious shores and fishermen in the hope that everyone’s interests and efforts will keep the preservation of the seas and the shores alive.

See more of Annie's work on our website - or visit the gallery! Image Size is 7" x 5", matted to 12" x 9" and framed to 13.25" x 10". They are sold both framed and unframed.

Ellen Granter, pure and simple

Over the years, we've noticed Ellen Granter's birds taking on a distinctly Asian look.

"When I go to museums that's where I go," she says. "It's what I want to see. I keep feeding that inspiration with more things I want to look at. I'm not a scholar, I just let it wash over me. The spareness – how modern some of these things look even though they're 400 years old."

Its that quality that makes Ellen's paintings so easy to live with. They're simple, peaceful, and perfect.

She says this clean, timeless style is right for her attention span and her desire to complete the thought. "I love other styles, but there's no way I could attempt to work in that vein. That's the way my hand works and my eye works."

Ellen tries to get in the studio every day. Sometimes she paints, but other times she sketches or looks at "bird porn" (birding magazines). Many of her paintings are variations on a sketch. 

She's also inspired by color combinations she comes across in the course of a day and wants to try out.

"In my own home I want it to be a sanctuary. The colors in the paintings make you feel good. Not just because you need something red over the couch."

She is inspired by the world around her, especially the spring migration. She's currently working on a series of sandpipers, from photos she took in Maine. She also saw some gorgeous orioles at Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary and did a whole series of paintings from those.

But most of her inspiration comes from the awe of looking at something and thinking “that's the most beautiful thing.”

That's what people say when they see her paintings, too. There's often a connection far beyond what goes with a room's decor.

"I love it when someone falls in love with [a painting] and wants it. It seems like a magical thing, that they saw something that moved them so much. It came out of my mind and connected in something in their mind. It amazes me."

“I'm not about talking about my inner angst or my fears, I have no interest in painting about it," she says.

"I am interested in making the most beautiful thing possible and making it simple.”

Steven Kennedy's signs of spring

It sounds like we're in for this again.

Don't get us wrong, we love Steven Kennedy's paintings. Even the ones he had to bundle up to paint. But we're really, really ready for spring.

It's almost March, so pretty soon we can trade this scene

for this scene.

Or maybe this. 

We're hoping for warmer weather because Steven paints en plein air and we don't want him to get cold. He doesn't complain, but the thought of him standing in the snow for hours makes us wish for spring.

We can practically smell the day this was painted. Can't you?

Spring is just around the corner, we know it! Right after these next few inches of snow.

In the meantime, Steven will keep bundling up and documenting these views just as he sees them. Since the early 1980s, Steven Kennedy has worked in the “plein air” tradition, painting directly from life outdoors in the many variations of weather and season.

He paints what he sees, staying loose while keeping the details. Steven calls his style painterly realism. (Those of us who sometimes forget our glasses think they look very realistic.)

Click here for a reminder of what the Cape looks like when it's warm. Steven's work is shown in Orleans and on Commercial Street in Wellfleet.

Baby it's cold outside

Winter  We love how these artists capture the world as it is (even when it's cold).

JIM HOLLAND

ELLEN GRANTER

ED CHESNOVITCH

CHRIS KELLEY

DENISE ZOMPA

PHILIP KEOHAN

JOYCE ZAVORSKAS

STEVEN KENNEDY

TATJANA KRIZMANIC

TERESA MCCUE

FAY SHUTZER

MARY BOURKE

Boats on End

Everywhere we look, there are Fay Shutzer paintings. Right now the Cape is full of scenes that look like something Fay would paint. There are quiet signs of life: Boats on their side, not yet stored; long shadows across the road.

These are the scenes that fueled Fay to pursue painting, following a career in psychology.

In a way, Fay's scenes are the Cape of years ago. In her artist statement, she talks about wanting to capture "the beauty of the light as well as the evocative aspects of the New England landscape" that were part of her youth.

That idea hit us recently. Fay's paintings have a serene, nostalgic quality to them. They're the New England landscapes of our memories. You can almost smell the air.

The Cape has that quality right now. The crowds are gone, but there are signs of life everywhere you look. There are people in kayaks on Duck Creek, and you can really see those long shadows across the empty roads.

Fay credits Anne Packard for pushing her into new territory by handing her a palette knife and encouraging her to take some risks. A third generation Provincetown painter, Anne knows all about the qualities of light and landscape Fay was looked to capture.

She also says it's "the irresistible pull of the paint, the magic of light and shadow, the fascination of trying to capture something elusive" that motivates her.

Whatever it is, we can't blame her for wanting to freeze it in time. We do, too.

above: Fay Shutzer "Boats on End," oil, 22" x 26"

Artist Spotlight: Carol Aust

Carol Aust's paintings are moments caught in the act - acts of tranquility, courage, joy.  Through her subjects, Carol gives us a glimpse of human emotion, on the brink of events small and large. They tell stories of everyday moments, showing the first step or that one instant that everything changed. Maybe we're projecting, but the current collection is full of hope, curiosity and promise: An intimate dance in the woods, the optimistic first steps of a journey, the surprise of a brightly candled cake, a spontaneously joyful leap.    Sailing over the turbulence. Perhaps it's the time of year that makes everything look this way. Instead of wondering what's next, we realize we're in the middle of what's next. Just like Carol's paintings. Carol works in acrylic on canvas and wood panels from her studio in Oakland, California. In her work you'll find influence of artists including Emil Nolde, Marc Chagall, Kathe Kollwitz, and the German expressionists.  We hope whatever moment you're caught in the middle of, it's full of promise.

Patte Ormsby: Wellfleet Revisited

"When I close my eyes to quiet my mind, the place I find is Wellfleet. I see the dark blue starry skies of childhood summer, Newcomb Hollow nights. I feel golden sand under me, still warm from the daytime sun. I hear the water, lapping at the harbor shore, as a soft breeze cools my skin.  I am floating, weightless on the clear fresh surface of a sparkling Dyer Pond surrounded by a forest of mossy green trees and a soft blue sky. I find a treasure of smooth stones beneath my feet in a salty low tide as a deep red Duck Harbor sunset turns the warm day to misty night.  This is where my paintings begin." - Patte Ormsby

The final solo show of summer opens at Left Bank Gallery in Wellfleet on Saturday, August 24 with Patte Ormsby's Wellfleet Revisited. The exhibit is at Left Bank's 25 Commercial Street, Wellfleet location and begins with a reception on August 24 from 6 to 8pm.

"Few times in the history of art are as symbolically and visually compelling as that of the Italian Renaissance," Patte says. "This continues to influence my paintings as I use elements of deep color, texture, gold leaf and pattern to present that sacred historical richness in a contemporary context. Using these elements in my paintings is my way of expressing the quiet solemnity or simmering energy of places that are sacred to me."

Color, texture and gold leaf are where the connection to the Italian Renaissance ends. Geometric grids and repeating shapes are layered within the scenes. Layers and layers of patterns and textures, in a mix of order and chaos. Through it all lies the richness of a renaissance. 

Patte uses unconventional materials with traditional techniques, applied in a contemporary way. She's drawn to aluminum-faced fiberglass board for its reflective and uneven surface qualities. Sometimes she includes other metals: aluminum or iron, with craquelure and oxidation techniques for textural interest and an aged quality. 

Building the paintings layer upon layer, Patte starts with brightly colored pattern, sprayed through screens, followed by translucent oil glazes and varnish resists for a luminosity achieved when combined with the aluminum ground. 

"I top this with imitation gold leaf, a copper and zinc alloy, to create the composition," she says. "I treat the leaf with a mild acidic solution of natural ingredients found in my kitchen, to develop a blue green patina or to melt it away entirely exposing more of the underlying shapes and colors, and enriching the layered effect."

It is only at the very end of the process that Patte picks up a brush!

Meet Patte Ormsby at a gallery reception on August 24, from 6 to 8 pm. Left Bank Gallery, 25 Commercial Street, Wellfleet.

Ellen Granter and Michele Dangelo - July 27 to August 9, 2013

Two new shows open Saturday, July 27 at Left Bank Gallery: Ellen Granter's "Golden Rules" and Michele Dangelo's "moreCOLOR." Both shows are at Left Bank's 25 Commercial Street, Wellfleet location and begin with a reception on July 27 from 6 to 8pm.

Ellen Granter grew up in upstate New York and received a BA in political science and a masters in Chinese history from the University of Vermont. She studied Mandarin Chinese for seven years and lived in Hong Kong and Beijing. The influence of her time in China is always present, and especially evident in this recent collection, "Golden Rules."

“My paintings express my passion for my favorite subjects, and my desire to create images that are beautiful and pure," she says in her artist statement. "For me, the point is not to create a souvenir of a place, or an accurate illustration, but rather to try to capture the barest essence and to create luminous, sparely composed paintings while still revealing emotional undercurrents. I enjoy stripping away detail and balancing the composition over large fields of color, making small spaces between things, and overlooked everyday subjects come more clearly into focus.”

After moving to Boston, Ellen became a graphic designer. As an antidote to the constraints of a computer-intensive graphic design career, she began painting. As time went on Ellen became integrated with painting. To brush dabs of oil on a surface in a human effort to capture the sublime is a challenge that has made her hyperaware of the textures, shapes, and patterns of daily life. She believes that a beautiful painting is both a gift of vision and a testament of appreciation for our short lives here on this beautiful Earth.

Michele Dangelo left a business career to pursue art in 1990. Primarily self-taught, she has spent little time in classes, preferring to look and experiment. Her inspiration is Robert Henri, the American Realist painter, who said, “Let nothing but the things which are of utmost importance to you have any place. The more simply you see, the more simply you will render.”

"Memories inspire my work," she says. "A critical component of my work is a basic icon - a house, dress, or boat - that proposes challenging, thoughtful ideas and speaks to the human condition.  Each picture is a multi-generational storehouse of memory and experience.  Simple, yet complex, iconic images in my work have come to suggest a range of emotions... because the forms are more conceptual than real they reflect the ambiguous and evoke the ambivalent.  Often they trigger a longing for pleasure, comfort, security and permanence, while transcending borders, cultures, and socio-economic class."

Both artists will be at Left Bank gallery for a reception the evening of July 27, from 6 to 8pm.

Ellen Granter: "Golden Rules"
Michele Dangelo: "moreCOLOR"
July 27 - August 9, 2013
Reception July 27, 6-8pm
Left Bank Gallery
25 Commercial Street, Wellfleet

Fran Forman

Fran Forman's images are not what you think they are.

On the other hand, her images are exactly what you think they are.

It's complicated.

Let's start with the background landscapes, many of which are shot by Fran in Wellfleet and Truro. She says the Cape is “a really easy place to photograph because of the marshes and the open vistas. And the light is so beautiful. A lot of the little houses and shacks I photograph are also from the Cape.”

But before you get comfortable with something recognizable, you need to know that those backgrounds are likely to contain bits of other places. The Blue Ridge Mountains, for instance.

This is part of what lends her images that familiar, yet disjointed feeling – like in dreams or a deja vu. Fran lets our thoughts land on the comfort of recognition for a moment, and then sends them on their way.

The figures in the images are also a collection of images and techniques. Many of the people start as old tintypes - found in junk shops or given to Fran by attic-cleaning friends.

While the images have their charms, they're usually just the torso. So Fran photographs models to animate the found tintypes. “I need those images to be doing stuff,” she says. “So I combine it, by collaging the new photographs that I take with the old photographs I've scanned. They're an amalgam of a lot of different images. I'm always collaging things. Most of the people come from many, many different sources.”

She then uses a stylus and tablet to paint in shadows, add color or change the clothing (remember, the found images start as black and white).

“I don't usually have a sense at the beginning of working on an image exactly how it's going to end up," she says. "What I do is start working with various images, putting things together, pulling them away. I have this feeling that all the pieces of the final image have to work together. I don't want it to look random. I want the various components to talk to each other, to have a relationship.”

Fran tries different combinations until she feels the color and texture of each component work together.

And while the stories are not something she always knows ahead of them, a narrative evolves as she works. The visual narrative is then handed over to the viewer to interpret.

“What I like when I see people looking at my work,” she says, “is for them to be standing in front of an image and talking to each other about what it means to them.”

“They're like little dreams that are open to interpretation. That's what they are to me.”

See Fran's work on our website

Inhabiting Jennifer O'Connell's interiors

Some day we'd like to draw a floor plan of how Jennifer O'Connell's paintings fit together. There's always something around the corner - and sometimes that something is in another painting. We've inspected them closely and have come up with a few different locations, piecing the puzzles together as we can.

Jennifer's paintings remind us of catching a glimpse of a room in a window's reflection at night. There's something familiar about them. In the reflections you think "that looks like a room I'd like to be in"

...and then you realize you are.

(Does that just happen to us?)

While it's fun to get all the facts and spread out the floor plan, it's also fun to spend time in the reflection. Sometimes the pieces themselves are enough.

Jennifer says:
"Obscure, private visions that alienate the mind in daylight, keep a potent mooring within me. Inspired by what the mind conjures, perception is influenced by contemplation. Shadows, objects, and shapes are gateways to memories. Imaginings mingle with perceptions. In dreaming before rooms, I come in contact with transient psychological aspects. Literally and symbolically, the interior space is the self.

"While nudging perception toward visual metaphor, I seek visual surprise. Visual and conceptual depth intersect through a back and forth process of direct observation and separation; reality is the support for suggestion. Under changing conditions, paintings are built up piece by piece, seeking compositional and conceptual resonance. Additively and subtractively, alternate descriptions are explored through the medium. Manifestations of human presences emerge; fragments of the many moments which build a painting. Through visual search and variety in application, the objects are surpassed as symbols and temporal evidence remains. "

Jennifer O’Connell earned an MFA degree in painting and drawing from the University of New Hampshire and a BFA from SUNY Plattsburgh. Additionally, she studied fine art at the University College Chester in England on a Giltz Family Travel Award. After receiving her MFA, she was invited to show in the "Young Talent" exhibition in Washington Depot, CT. Since then, she has been the recipient of numerous awards including an Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Fellowship and a Vermont Studio Center Artist Residency Grant. She has led public lectures and participated in panel discussions around the Northeast. Her exhibition record includes national and international shows at Fraser Gallery in Washington, DC and the Bowery Gallery in New York. In 2008, she was selected by juror Cynthia Reeves for the New England / New Talent Exhibition at the Fitchburg Art Museum in Fitchburg, MA. Galleries that represent her include Adam Cave Fine Art in Raleigh, NC, the Oxbow Gallery in Northampton, MA, Three Graces Gallery in Portsmouth, NH, and Gallery Wright in Wilmington, VT. In addition, Jennifer O’Connell spent time as an adjunct drawing instructor at the University of New Hampshire.

Michele Dangelo - artist statement

"A critical component of my work is a basic icon – a house, boat, or dress – infused with vigorous but reserved energy. These complex and contemplative, yet simple and subtle images reflect my choice to concentrate on ordinary objects and invite me to instinctually create a multi-generational storehouse of memory. I try to give my work a sense of direction and eloquence by using geometrical simplification to amplify the feelings of emptiness around each object.
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Abstracted images and mark making, in combination with innovative use of color, create the essential elements of my work. My style may be described as a spontaneous but conscious attempt to penetrate the hidden intimacy of ordinary objects. I delight in surprising viewers with paintings that are motionless in time and devoid of any particular narrative, however there is always a different story to tell – leaving unsaid that which the viewer longs to discover.

I work to realize the correct color/shade to convey feeling by pushing conventional stereotypes, at times using orange to trigger a pensive response or red to subdue rather than ignite. Palette knives, rags and other materials add texture and depth creating surfaces that might be described as layers of tonal memories.

My work is collected by many who feel that everyday objects ignite imagination and create a sense of connectivity. Because the forms are more conceptual than real they reflect the ambiguous and evoke ambivalence triggering a longing for pleasure, comfort, security and permanence - while transcending borders, cultures and socio-economic class

I remain challenged by the notions of free expression and a distinct hand to create work that has more to do with the viewer’s perception than my intention. " - Michele Dangelo

See Michele's work on our website

Peter Batchelder - artist statement

"Childhood interests in architecture and archaeology have led me to consider the context of time-worn structures within the New England landscapes. I am fascinated on many levels when coming across a barn or seaside cottage. From an artist’s perspective, I am interested in the nature of the architecture; how it sits within its landscape, color and light. From a personal perspective, I find myself often curious about the story of the building: who built it and why; the many people who have lived or worked in the building; how the landscape may have changed around the structure over the course of years. I find that the curiosity I have about the building intertwines with the creative process in my interpretation of the architecture and landscape in one image.

"In some of my work I feel the architecture serves as the sentry for the landscape and in other cases the exact opposite. Because I remove extraneous details from both the landscape and architecture I paint, it is my hope that a viewer will be challenged by the image to let their own curiosity create a story - is the beach cottage long abandoned or just waiting for its inhabitants to return?

"I have long been influenced by the works of Andrew and Jamie Wyeth, Edward Hopper, Winslow Homer and Robert Cardinal and their use of light and color to define subject and mood. I typically begin a piece with multiple sketches in either graphite or charcoal to work out the composition. Then I transition to small watercolor or oil studies to allow for experimentation with different color fields and use of light before committing to canvas. I use many layers of paint in my work to allow me to pull the undercolor to the surface and create depth and movement to highlight form and the way light defines a subject." - Peter Batchelder

 After establishing himself as a successful graphic designer, Peter began pursuing his fine art career in 1992 on Martha's Vineyard, where he resided year-round for three years. Upon returning to the mainland he co-founded, as Creative Director, a web design and software company based in Bedford, NH. In recent years he has achieved success as an artist with his representation at prestigious galleries in the Boston area, Provincetown and the Monadnock, NH region.

Peter trained in studio art at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (BFA 1987) under artists Jack Coughlin, Lionel Gongora, John Grillo, and Hanlon Davies as well as Robert Cardinal at the Truro Center for the Arts.

Teresa McCue - artist statement

"Who can remember the first time they felt the thrill of creating something that was their own? Why was it so important to have that crayon masterpiece receive the place of honor on the refrigerator door? The need to create has always been a driving force for me. The creative process is where I become totally focused, elated, frustrated, and alive."

"During many years of study, I have had the opportunity to try a variety of media: oil painting, printmaking, ceramics, etc; but several years ago, when I began working with pastels, it felt like coming home. I was seduced by having an array of luscious colors at my fingertips. I loved the immediacy of picking up a piece of color and putting it down on the page. I loved the tactile connection I had with the work and began to notice that my own energy and emotions seemed to be coming through even though it was not a conscious effort on my part."

"My work really has two components: One is the spiritual connection the outdoors holds for me. I am enamored of the sights and sounds of nature: the patterns, the rhythms, the textures, and the almost tangible quality of the light. The other is my enchantment with color. It fascinates me that a certain hue can change depending upon how it is surrounded. I love the richness of deep tones used together. I love the emotion of bright vivid explosions of color and the subtleties of combining softer hues, closely related in value. One mark goes down on the page, which determines the next, and then the next. Gradually, the piece emerges. Sometimes when I stand back from my easel, to see the work in it’s totality, I am surprised by my own creation. It’s as though at some point, the work takes on a life of it’s own. For me, that is the magic of the creative process." -Teresa McCue

above: Early Morning #5, pastel, 8" x 8"

layers of meaning

Our artists are constantly making us look things up (see recent post re: Joanne Williams).

When Graceann Warn first referred to a palimpsest, we nodded knowingly - and then went and looked it up when her back was turned.


Definition of PALIMPSEST (from Merriam-Webster)

1
: writing material (as a parchment or tablet) used one or more times after earlier writing has been erased
2
: something having usually diverse layers or aspects apparent beneath the surface
Examples of PALIMPSEST
The ancient city is an architectural palimpsest.

Here is Graceann's artist statement, to put it all in context:

"I paint and I construct.

Both my paintings and assemblages use the metaphor of excavation. My formal education in landscape architecture and classical archaeology provides structure to artistic flights of fancy that always seem

to revolve around some form of revelation: The attempt to unearth an object or solve a mystery.

Uncovering/Covering. 

Leaving a Trace, a Vestige, a Palimpsest."

Sailing to Byzantium

Joanne Williams' upcoming show, Sailing to Byzantium, is inspired by the Yeats poem of the same name. Our English class memories failed us, so we looked it up. Here it is (in case yours did too):

Sailing to Byzantium

That is no country for old men. The young
In one another's arms, birds in the trees
- Those dying generations - at their song,
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,
Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long
Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.
Caught in that sensual music all neglect
Monuments of unageing intellect.

An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress,
Nor is there singing school but studying
Monuments of its own magnificence;
And therefore I have sailed the seas and come
To the holy city of Byzantium.

O sages standing in God's holy fire
As in the gold mosaic of a wall,
Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,
And be the singing-masters of my soul.
Consume my heart away; sick with desire
And fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is; and gather me
Into the artifice of eternity.

Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;
Or set upon a golden bough to sing
To lords and ladies of Byzantium
Of what is past, or passing, or to come.

-William Butler Yeats

Joanne Williams | Sailing to Byzantium

August 11- 24; opening reception August 11, 6-8pm; Wellfleet

____________________

Yeats wrote in a draft script for a 1931 BBC broadcast:

I am trying to write about the state of my soul, for it is right for an old man to make his soul, and some of my thoughts about that subject I have put into a poem called 'Sailing to Byzantium'. When Irishmen were illuminating the Book of Kells, and making the jeweled croziers in the National Museum, Byzantium was the centre of European civilization and the source of its spiritual philosophy, so I symbolize the search for the spiritual life by a journey to that city.^[1]  

(Wikipedia) 

art therapy

Fay Shutzer's paintings fill us with longing to be in the places she paints. Lights twinkle on the wharf, towels hang on the line, a family stops to tie a shoe or fix a swimsuit.

A visitor to the gallery recently stopped in front of a wall of Fay's paintings and said to her friend, "I just find these so soothing."

We overheard the comment because the paintings were near one of our desks - where we also found them soothing.

We have a bit of a travel bug, and are huge fans of travel photography (like Don Krohn's). Images of Provence, Tuscany and eastern Europe make us yearn for plane tickets, wondering what the places must be like to visit. (We also get hungry for olives and figs, but that's another story).

Paintings do it, too. Not all paintings, but certainly Fay's. The thing is, we are already here - in the place she makes us long to be. Fay takes the scenes we live in, and captures them in their best moments. She paints what we see and feel when we stop to really look. It's the trip, with none of the baggage.

Fay makes us stop and remember that moments can be effortless - right where we are. Isn't that a breath of fresh air?

May your August be full of Fay Shutzer moments.

May you remember to breathe.

Carol Aust's "Journal Entries"

What's in your journal?

It's none of our business, really. Journals are where we work through our fears, spell out our concerns and celebrate our victories.

We're about to get a look at what Carol Aust's journal might look like. At this point we're not sure what we'll find (besides the paintings above and below).


Her new exhibit, "Journal Entries," opens at Left Bank Gallery in Wellfleet on July 28, with a reception from 6 to 8pm that day. The show runs through August 10.

Carol works in acrylic, on canvas and wood panels, from her studio in Oakland, California. Her figurative paintings are emotionally-charged narrative fragments infused with mysterious tension and secrecy. She often places her figures in precarious environments where anything could happen.

"Journal Entries" captures celebratory, tranquil or lonely moments. Carol's paintings express a wide range of human desire and yearning, featuring figures that are both engaging and vulnerable. The influence of Emil Nolde, Marc Chagall, Kathe Kollwitz, and the German expressionists are readily apparent in Carol's paintings.

July 28 - August 10, 2012
Reception: July 28, 6 to 8pm
25 Commercial Street, Wellfleet