CAPE ANN TO TAHITI

“Moorea can truly be called "Paradise on Earth".  Last June, I traveled to this place, a volcanic island in the middle of the South Pacific and part of Tahiti.  This paradise I had read about was where I now stood with paints and brushes.  My greatest challenge was seeing through its picture-postcard beauty.  It is real, after all.”

 Rocky Neck Gallery’s next exhibit of the Summer Artist Series is Oil Paintings from Cape Ann to Tahiti by artist Rokhaya Waring.  The show opens Wednesday, August 31^st until Tuesday, Sept. 13th.  The exhibit includes landscapes and seascapes of her travels in Tahiti and her home in Cape Ann.  

Waring is drawn to things growing side-by-side: cultivated fields, gardens, and rows of trees.  Her work evokes the processes of a simpler time, when one’s primary interaction with nature was carving very small pieces of it into breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Waring believes that because of nature’s fragility, the pleasure is transitory and bittersweet.  

“I want to capture it in a way that is timeless without being static.  I want viewers to feel the wind and the sun, sense the space and light.”

 On Tahiti I was drawn by the swiftly changing clouds, lush vegetation, and the colors of the ocean—the same elements I love about my home in Gloucester.  As far apart as they are, each place has helped me see the other—more often contrasting though at times reminiscent.

Waring was born in Sante Fe, NM of a French mother and an American father.  She grew up with French as a first language and spent her early years in Florence and Paris.  Her family settled in Rockport, MA, where, in 1972, her parents founded La Petite Ecole- (now The Waring School).

She graduated from Princeton University in 1988 with a BA in Art History and Visual Arts.  That summer she made her first trip to Provence and fell in love with it.  In the 20 years that followed Rokhaya spent part of every year in the medieval village of Forcalquier, painting and exhibiting her work.  She has also painted in England, Italy, Greece, Scandinavia, Israel, Martinique, French Polynesia and throughout the United States.  In 2008, Rokhaya returned to Cape Ann (where she is a member of The Rocky Neck Art Colony) to live and work.

Waring's bold colors and vigorous brushstrokes have prompted comparisons to European Impressionists.  Her paintings have been exhibited in juried shows in Europe, the United States and are in many private collections worldwide.  Some venues where her work has been shown include: the Copley Society of Art in Boston, MA, the Salon Des Artistes Français and the Salon d'Automne in Paris, and the Currier Museum of Art in New Hampshire.  

     A reception for the artist is this Saturday, Sept. 3, from 6-8 pm at Rocky Neck Gallery.  Please join us, meet the artist and travel the exotic world through her colorful paintings.

ART JEWELRY DEMO BY RACHELAUREN

Art jeweler and metalsmith Rachelauren Somers will give a demo this Thursday, September 1,  at Rocky Neck Gallery from 1 - 2 pm on Chasing and Repoussé.

Don't miss this talented artist at work sharing her techniques in creating original high end masterpieces for body adornment.   

Repoussé is a metalworking technique where the artist hammers a piece of metal to create a design on the opposite side. Chasing is the opposite technique. The two techniques are used in conjunction to create a finished piece, sometimes referred to as embossing. 

Rachel earned her B.A. in Design from San Diego State University's School of Art, Design and Art History. She currently resides on the scenic north shore of Massachusetts, where she creates high quality one of a kind and limited production pieces.  See more of her work at Rocky Neck Gallery, her website rachelauren.com  and on Facebook.

KATE SOMERS DEMOS

Yesterday (Saturday, August 27) RNG's artist Kate Somers conducted a watercolor demonstration at the gallery from 2 pm on.   Well attended by all ages, Kate showed several techniques she uses to create her award winning paintings of Gloucester. 

The demo consisted of 3-4 paintings in varied stages.  Kate brought a finished painting and one of her photographs which inspired the work.  She showed various techniques in washes and maskit of applying and removing.

Kate grew up on Cape Ann and her love of the area shows in her work.  She captures the ever changing  light on land and water.  Not only does she paint plein air but travels everywhere with her camera.  These images "become the bones of my watercolors, where often the white of a light house or the sails of a schooner are the pink and orange light of sunset".

Kate says: I have become a watercolor artist and it is my mission to show you what I see.

See more of Kate Somers' work at Rocky Neck Gallery and also in a multimedia show called Surreal to Abstract at 4 Centennial Drive in Peabody, MA now until September 3rd.  For more information visit Kate's website: http://www.randomartsmagnolia.com/

Special thanks to Terry Del Percio for taking these photographs and allowing their use.

Proprietary Chaos

“Proprietary Chaos,”  introduces an exciting new show at Rocky Neck Gallery.  This show features  photographs of street life and informal communities of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, taken over the last four years by Laurence Kent Jones.  Images include street scenes and over-sized stitched panoramas of informally built hillside neighborhoods and comparison photos of neighborhoods before and after the January 2010 earthquake.



Canope Pans Vert Series
photograph by Laurence Kent Jones



Laurence Kent Jones has been assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti for the last four years as part of a stabilization project focused on an economically deprived section of the city. As a result he spent a lot more time at the street level than the average diplomat. “Of course, I always had my camera with me!” With his photographs, Jones presents a moment in time that may be washed away or possibly reveals the seeds of a modern style of infrastructure unique to the needs and conditions of a large and tropical island.

"Haiti has a vibrant street life.  Most people have very limited resources and housing is frequently no more than shelter to sleep and eat, while the rest of the day's activities take place on the street in the open.  The small merchants settle semi-permanently into a spot on the sidewalk, a passageway, or in any open space that might be available, overrunning the public space.  Poorer people have colonized the corners of the older neighborhoods and created huge informal squatter settlements.  The line between planned portions of the city and the squatter settlements is obvious on the ground and shockingly clear from above.  We're seeing an urban infrastructure develop that is very different from anything in North America.  This collection of photographs taken before and after the 2010 earthquake, include journalistic street scenes and oversized panoramas of informally built hillside neighborhoods in Haiti.

The show opened this past Wednesday, Aug. 17 and continues until Tuesday, Aug. 30.  It is part of Rocky Neck Gallery Summer Artist series introducing excceptional new works from local to international artists every two weeks.  A reception for the artist will be held this Saturday, Aug. 20, from 6-8 pm.  The artist, Laurence Kent Jones, will give a presentation at 7 pm.  Please join us for a poignant exhibition and a very informative artist talk. 

           

SLIPPING THE KNOT

Slip # 2
acrylic/canvas 18 x 18

 

August 3-16: Slipping the Knot

watermedia paintings by Martha Wakefield

RECEPTION: This Saturday,  August 6: 5-8 pm

Artist Talk at 7 pm

Martha Wakefield, a former fashion executive, is a visual artist working in watercolors, acrylics and oils. She is a juried member of the Cambridge Art Association and the Rhode Island Watercolor Society. Martha has studied with Wolf Kahn, Stuart Shils and William Lawrence. Her work has been accepted into numerous juried shows and is in many private collections in United States and Canada. Her paintings have been featured in the Fall/Winter 2010 issue of Wild Apples: a Journal of Nature, Art, and Inquiry, and The Palette Magazine where she is a staff writer. A juried member of the Rocky Neck Gallery of Gloucester, she is also is represented by the Hope Gallery of Bristol, Rhode Island.

This intimate show features seven paintings (18 x 18 acrylics/canvas), four small works (acrylics on handmade paper mounted on canvas), and a large watercolor (36 x 28).  Martha started this series in January.  This was the results of those art accidents where her intention was to explore mixed media utilizing fabric from garments that represented a relationship with her mother.  Instead the slip emerged and series was created.

This body of work is an exploration of loss—of love that once was vibrant has slipped away. To denote this spirited soul I am utilizing a slip—an article of clothing that conveys intimacy with the wearer. A slip can be utilitarian or sensual, revealing the beauty of the female form without portraying nakedness. It has an intimate relationship with the wearer acting as a second skin but also acts as a protective or proper barrier to the other influences. I am using color, shape, line and layering to convey a sense of someone wearing, moving, and living in such a sheer skin of fabric—yet one who remains hidden from our view. The garment holds the memory of a loved one; we sense a presence though in truth she has slipped away from the knot of life and family. All that remains is the clothes.


Red Slip # 3
watercolor 36 x 28



Please join us either this Thursday 8/4 for Nights on the Neck featuring live music with Fax Holiday from 6-8 pm, plus refreshments, art & fun and/or this Saturday evening 8/6 for an artist reception from 5 - 8 pm with more food, spirits, artists, friends, art & more fun! 

FAX HOLIDAY THURSDAY



FAX HOLIDAY





NEW ALBUM: ROPE & WINE



Come down to Rocky Neck Gallery this Thursday evening, August 4th, and hear the rocking sounds of  indie/folk band Fax Holiday as they will be playing from 6 - 8 pm adding sweet harmony to another festive Nights on the Neck  The talented artists of this group are: Eric Schermerhorn, Ian Macleod, Elizabeth Bollenberg & Dana Diplacido. 

 

From the "must read" site Shh, Listen by Jon Martin posted on June 21st, 2011 - here is what he has to say about Fax Holiday and their new album Rope & Wine.

"Fax Holiday is the recording/performing name of Eric Schermerhorn (formerly of Mutt and Margin Walker), and it is also the name of a Boston-based indie/folk band containing Schermerhorn (vocals, guitars, autoharp), Ian Macleod (bass, vocals), Elizabeth Bollenberg (violin, harp), and Dana Diplacido (percussion)." 

"Their new album – Rope & Wine – is a solid musical effort – combining indie-rock numbers like “Dropping Out” with more introspective, folk-inspired tunes like “Salt.”  Regardless of presentation, each song feels as if it is rooted in something that is deeply personal – coming to the listener as if from a diary entry.  It’s a combination that comes up a lot in these parts (you might be familiar with a similar formula as seen in the work of Galaxie 500), and produces an amazingly vibrant emotional tapestry. Also, it rocks.  Did I mention that it rocks?"

Check out the band's website and for contacting the group: faxholidayshows@gmail.com. 

Nights on the Neck this Thursday, August 4th, has many other events happening to appeal to all ages, interests and dancing feet.  Check out the lineup at NOTN and find demos, music, food, art and friends on the Neck.  See you there!

And special Thanks to Jon Martin!