THE GALLERY ROCKS

Rocky Neck rocked Saturday evening with galleries & restaurants open, receptions happening and crowds out celebrating the start of the summer and fresh art to see.  Friends, families, artists and new fans were out and about on a perfect Memorial weekend of summer weather. 

At Rocky Neck Gallery a reception was in full swing for the Best of Rocky Neck Members Show featuring 37 artist and 63 works of art in jewelry, photography, paintings, ceramics, mixed media and more.  Also new this year "Break Out" featuring emerging student artists from Endicott College & Montserrat College of Art.  A must see small exhibit of big talent next door on Kismet Wharf.

Tiara by Rachel Lauren Somers

A sampling of The Best of RNAC Members Show



waiting to get into the "Break Out" emerging student artists exhibit



Some of the work featured in the Break Out exhibit



This show is open through to next Saturday, June 3rd.  The hours are Sunday - Thursday: 11am - 7pm and Friday & Saturday: 11am -8 pm.  Don't miss it!

And stay tuned for the 2011 season for Rocky Neck Gallery opening Wednesday, June 8th.  

SPIFFING FOR SUMMER

Rocky Neck Gallery was spiffed up this past Wednesday.  The door opened for spring cleaning before the new summer season approaches.   Many of the artist members arrived at noon to scrap, caulk, sand, paint, wire, wash and other general duties for sprucing the space under the fine direction of Kate Somers, chair of the hanging committee.

At the end of the day the gallery just sparkles with a new coat of paint, bright lights, clear windows, new display counters and is now ready for an exciting new art filled season. 

NEW MEMBERS

 

 

 

Rocky Neck Gallery is pleased to welcome four new members for the 2011 season.  It was a challenging  jurying process choosing from a diverse and talented pool of applicants.  We are grateful to all the artists who applied for membership to the gallery.  The new members and their media are:

  John Cameron, Etchings and Fine Furniture

Deborah Geurtze, Etchings and Monotypes

David Piemonte, Photography

Ruth Worrall, Pottery

 

We will be introducing these new members and their work along with profiles on all the gallery's artists over these next few weeks. 

Saturday with seARTS at Bass Rocks Golf Club

seArts 2011 Loan Program art show at Bass Rocks Golf Club kicked off the new season Saturday with artists dropping off their accepted work.  Four artists from RN gallery: Michael Oleksiw, Kate Somers, Mary Rhinelander McCarl and Martha Wakefield have new work in the show along with works from 15 other artists.  Chair of seARTS, Jacqueline Ganin-DeFalco welcomed the artists and is seen here with Skip Montello of Rocky Neck Art Colony along with Michael Oleksiw of the Rocky Neck Gallery.  For this year's exhibit Skip is holding his photograph titled Sea Smoke at Straitsmouth and Michael's photograph is called Let Me In.   

L-R: Skip Montello, RNAC member; Jacqueline Ganin-DeFalco, Chair seARTS; Michael Oleksiw, RNG member

This is the fourth year seARTS is sponsoring this show in collaboration with Bass Rocks Golf Club.  To be considered for the show artists must be members of this worthwhile organization and please note - it is not just for visual artists.  From the seARTS website here is a brief introduction about the organization:

seARTS includes individual artists -- painters, sculptors, photographers, graphic artists, performance artists, creative writers, architects, craftsmen, musicians, dancers, actors, directors, film makers -- and individuals and organizations that support the arts. Through association with seARTS, members build community and economic ties to strengthen the cultural economy of Gloucester and Cape Ann.

Let Me In by Michael Oleksiw

Gallery member Michael Oleksiw's photograph here is titled Let Me In.  Michael began creating art in the 1960s; his undergraduate and graduate degrees are in fine art.  He has exhibited his 2D and 3D artwork in the Northeast and Southwest and received a National Endowment for the Arts grant. He has designed publications, multimedia shows, and exhibits for non-profits.  Michael's work is in several private collections through out the country.






Twin Lights from Good Harbor Beach
by Mary Rhinelander McCarl

 

For Mary Rhinelander McCarl: it is three paintings accepted this year and her third year participating in this show.  Mary's work shown here is acrylic on paper.  She enjoys preparing for this exhibit, painting local scenes of the Gloucester area, and the opportunity to talk about her work at the artists' reception in June.  (date TBA)






Watercolor by Kate Somers





Kate Somers feels lucky to have grown up on Cape Ann.  She  works in watercolors and has two paintings in this show.  She paints both plein air and in her studio in Magnolia.  Like Mary, Kate likes to observe her environment and capture the beauty that surrounds her.  When asked her inspiration for this work, she replied, Just lying on my back on a sunny day looking up the mast with just enough wind to fill the sail is the light of Cape Ann.  Lucky indeed.

And painter Martha Wakefield also feels lucky to return to this show for a third year. She is shown here with her watercolor called Taos along side seARTS President James Caviston  and Jacqueline Ganim-DeFalco.

To see additional paintings from these RN gallery artists and other artists in this exhibit please join us in June at the Bass Rocks Golf Club for the artists' reception - a festive and fun event.  The date and more information will be announced soon.  And please follow seARTS on Facebook.
 

Residency at Rocky Neck Inspires Anne Krinsky's Soprafina Gallery Show



Counterpoint
acrylic & mixed media on panel
36" x 24" (2011)



For her second show at Soprafina Gallery, Anne Krinsky is exhibiting architecturally-inspired abstractions, informed by her residency last September at the Rocky Neck Art Colony in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and by a recent trip to Tunisia.

The large carriage door of the Rocky Neck residency studio is sheathed in an embossed, gridded pattern that resembles a boat’s hull or, when inverted, doors, gothic windows and archways. Krinsky says, “I have used grids in my work for many years and shortly after I arrived on Rocky Neck to begin my residency, this one announced itself as ‘my next grid.’’’

Using this grid as a scaffold, the artist has created luminous acrylic and mixed media works on panel and on layered mylar. She has incorporated acrylic transfers --  from photographs of wavelike patterns of light she made while in residence -- into her richly surfaced images.


About a Boat
acrylic & mixed media on panel
36" x 18" (2011)

Krinsky’s observations from a trip to Tunisia also animate this body of work. Forms originating in Tunisian vernacular architecture – complex tiled interiors and white exterior walls punctuated by brilliant blue windows and doors – here integrate seamlessly into Krinsky’s gridded framework.

Miriam Seidel, Independent Curator and Philadelphia Correspondent for Art in America, recently wrote, “Anne Krinsky has developed a way of working informed by grid composition, with subtle geometries inflected by recognizable imagery. Her images… with their delicately drawn lines hover like daydreams in their fields of color.”



Portal
acrylic & mixed media on panel
36" x 18" (2011)



The artist’s recent retrospective, Anne Krinsky: Time / Line, 2000-2010, at the Trustman Gallery at Simmons College in Boston, explored continuity and change in a decade of her panel paintings and works on paper. The British Museum, the Boston Public Library, Graham Gund and the U.K. charity, Paintings in Hospitals, have purchased Krinsky’s works as have numerous corporations. She has been awarded previous residencies at Fundacion Valparaiso, Mojacar, Spain; Brisons Veor, St. Just, England; and the Millay Colony for the Arts, Austerlitz, NY.

Soprafina Gallery presents

ANNE KRINSKY: A PROVISIONAL SPACE
New Works on Panel and Mylar
April 1st - 30th, 2011

Artist's Reception: Friday April 1st, 5:30 - 7:30 PM

Soprafina Gallery, 55 Thayer Street, Boston, MA 617.728.0770
Gallery Hours: Wed - Sat 11:00 AM - 5:30 PM
  

THE CREW REVISED

 This blog THE CREW posted on Sunday had some glitches...one was a Google glitch - images could not be posted.  The other was the author as the ceramic artist Cynthia Curtis was left out.  We invite you back to see the stunning photographs taken by four of the gallery's photographers.

Arabesque by Tom Robinson-Cox



The gallery is excited to see so many talented artists returning for the 2011 season.  To date we have 17 artists committed.  In the coming weeks we plan to feature each artist on the blog.  Every media the gallery presents has interesting people each with a story behind their work.  We have lots of talented award-winning individuals creating original works in painting, jewelry, photography, ceramics, mixed media, sculpture and printmaking. 

Impromtu 16 by Judy Robinson-Cox

The painters, covering oils, acrylics and watercolors are: Susan Daly, Mary Rhinelander McCarl, Mary Healy, Kate Somers, Frederick Jillson and Martha Wakefield.  In collage and mixed media we have Judy Robinson Cox and Robin Colodzin.  Mary Rhinelander specializes in printmaking.  (Note: The list to the right on this blog Gallery Artists has links to their websites where you can view more of their work.)

Our photographers are: Michael Oleksiw, Vicki DiezCanseco, Michael Seif, Tom Robinson-Cox, Richard Seeley, Judy Robinson-Cox and Robert Viau. 




Nebula by Michael Seif





  

In jewelry see inspiring works in precious metals, glass, beads and semi-precious gems by artists Rachel Lauren Somers, Judith Bly, Mary Healy & Mary Rhinelander McCarl.

Creating works in ceramics are Susan Hershey, Jayne Lacey and Cynthia Curtis.  And sculptor is Robert Viau.  More artists will be added to our list as the season develops.  And the gallery has a few spaces left for new talent creating original artwork waiting for the art loving public the gallery attracts.

Marsh in the Morning by Richard Seeley

SOCIAL MEDIA MASH

Yesterday several of the Rocky Neck Gallery artists got together at the Pleasant Street Tea Company in downtown Gloucester for a social media (SM) tutorial.  This was organized by the gallery's new marketing director Susan Hershey.  Over strong brew and sweet muffins the artists arrived with laptops to learn how to post, tweet, blog, friend and network virally. 

Go-to-SM maven Rachelauren Somers presented an overview on the "why" of these tools, their importance for the gallery, Rocky Neck Art Colony and the greater community of Gloucester.  Rachel followed her talk by introducing the newly launched  Rocky Neck Gallery Facebook page.  She instructed the group on how to establish a facebook presence and more.  This was followed by Martha Wakefield showing the gallery's new Twitter page, the blog and the basics of using these two tools.  It was 2 plus hours of chaotic fun in media mashing. We left, all much improved in SM marketing, with anticipation of an exciting season for the gallery and the artists.

Please note: On this blog in the upper right corner under FOLLOW RNG are links to our Facebook & Twitter pages