NEW SEASON

Rocky Neck Gallery is getting ready for an exciting season in 2012.  We have new members to introduce.  A new Summer Artist Series lineup featuring six diverse and contemporary shows and of course Nights on the Neck.  The blog will get a new look shortly and we are still on Facebook and Twitter so lots of easy ways to follow us and know about all our events.

First event will be the Rocky Neck Art Colony Members' Spring Show from May 18th - June 2nd featuring the best of the best RNAC artists.  Details are at RNAC website.  Then the gallery reopens June 6th for the season and we are open 7 days a week.  Lots more to follow in the days to come.

We look forward to seeing you this season at Rocky Neck Gallery!      

SEASON ENDS

The days are get shorter and the temperatures are dropping.  All is quiet now on the Neck.  Rocky Neck Gallery closed for the season on October 15th.  We thank all our visitors, friends, family and fans for the wonderful support and making this a superb season! 

Plans are underway for a winter show in downtown Gloucester.  We will keep you informed here and on Facebook and Twitter.  So please stop in often at these sites for updates (you can link to FB & Twitter at the upper right of this page).  Even though the artists and artworks are gone from the gallery we will still be at work promoting our talented crew and their original works of art.  And we always look forward to seeing and hearing from you! 

KATE SOMERS

What better way to end the summer than feel like you are sailing the sparkling waters of Cape Ann, watching the wind fill your crisp white sails against a brilliant blue sky.  Such a sensation as this is captured by local artist Kate Somers in her new show Sailing Surreal at the Rocky Neck Gallery.

This exhibit of mixed media paintings opened last Wednesday, Sept. 28, and runs until Friday, Oct. 14th.  This is the last juried exhibit of the Summer Artist Series that Rocky Neck Gallery featured showcasing two week runs of work from local and national artists.

 

A native of Cape Ann, Somers appreciates the way the light changes from minute to minute and season to season. “A November morning with lavender light on a glassy sea can easily turn into a torrid storm in only minutes. As an “En Plein Air painter” I’ve retrieved my easel and pallet out of several marshes.” Currently Kate is doing most of her painting from photographs in her studio.

 

Somers works in her studio Random Arts in Magnolia.  This she opened in 2005 as a gallery and studio for her and other artists to work.  The gallery is home to five other artists and offers a wide selection of artwork, including watercolor paintings, hand-painted silk scarves, quilts, stained glass and photography.  Since she purchased the gallery and became immersed in art each day, Somers has noticed a difference in her painting - she now gets awards and there is strong demand for her work.

For inspiration Kate wanders the coastline with her camera and her brother takes her along for a boat ride now and then. “From there I can get images I could never see from land. Once in the studio these images become the bones of my watercolors, where often the white of a lighthouse or the sails of a schooner are the pink and orange of sunset.”

Saturday night an artist reception was held form 5 - 8.  A lively crowd gathered to see Kate's show, hear her talk and celebrate the last gallery party of the season.  Don't miss this colorful exhibit of stunning mixed media capturing that day of going for a summer sail.  The gallery is open seven days a week until October 14th.  

ART NIGHT IN PEABODY

Rocky Neck Gallery is on the move to Peabody, Massachusetts, this Thursday

for the first ArtNight sponsored by SpringHill Suites. 

 

Please join us for an inspirational and festive evening spotlighting local artworks created by artists not just from Rocky Neck Gallery, but also including artists from Cape Ann Artisans and SeARTS.

This one night event will feature original works in pottery, jewelry, photography, oils, watercolors, mixed media, etchings, sculpture, engravings, collage, mosaics and fiber art.  

The date is this Thursday, September 29, 2011

 4 - 8 pm

 SpringHills Suite Peabody - Conference Center. 

43 Newbury Street

(Rt 1 North - just North of Bertucci's & South of Sonic)

Peabody, MA  01960

SpringHill Suites is offering refreshments & a cash bar at this event.  An art raffle will also take place benefitting a local charity.

Artists participating from Rocky Neck Gallery are:

Cynthia Curtis

Sue Daly 

Vicki DiezCanseco

Rachel Somers

Tom Robinson-Cox

Susan Hershey

Michael Oleksiw

Kate Somers

Ruth Worrall

Judy Robinson-Cox

 Martha Wakefield

 

and

David Piemonte

Other artists participating include: David Archibald, Les Bartlett, John Bassett, Jackie Ganim-DeFalco, Jayne Gardner, Linda Kelly, Stephanie Mason, Anni Melancon, David Montgomery, Marty Morgan, Scott Mulcahey, Sinikka Nogelo, Greg Orfanos, Pam Stratton, Bart Stuyf,  and Beth Williams.

We would love to see you there this Thursday from 4 - 8 pm!

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.