The exhibit at the Jessie Edwards Studio features pen and ink drawings and pen and ink with watercolors by Jessie Edwards. They were done over the fall, winter, and spring of Covid 20-21. The show runs from August 27 to September 10 at the gallery on the second floor of the Post Office building. A virtual reception video will be released on August 28. Twenty percent of the sales from this exhibit will go to the Block Island Fire and Rescue Department.
Oils by Peter Gish originally planned for this time period have been postponed until the weekend of Indigenous Peoples Day – October 8th.
For Edwards, drawing daily through the year of Covid was a way of calming down, meditating. Fourteen of the works are framed and depict familiar island sites and structures. Pen and ink is especially well suited for showing the details of the structures, such as in “Avonlea,” a view of the house on the curve of Corn Neck Road beyond The Kittens, with its details of the porch and windows. “Bit O’ Heaven,” one of the framed pen and ink with watercolor, is another familiar building with its Victorian tower and porches accentuated with pale greens, lavender, and sky blue.
“Legion Park in Spring” is another pen and ink with watercolor. The pink blossoms bring warmth to the grays of the monuments and the road curving in the right foreground. In contrast,
“Nocturnal Road,” in pen and ink only, shows a long stretch of road leading into a grey sky with the bright yellow line down the center.
In “Winter Out Building,” the pen and ink emphasize the grey shingles and white doors, the snow on the stone wall and grass, and the backboard of a basketball hoop without its net.
“Island Wall” is another pen and ink with watercolor that shows the balancing act of the stones in grey, yellow, blue, and tan tones.
In the eleven matted and unframed works in watercolor and pen and ink, the color stands out against the grey and black and white of the pen and ink. For example, in “Old Harbor Block Island,” the view of the Surf Hotel and corner dormers of the National Hotel from the beach in Old Harbor is set off behind the vivid yellow of a canoe among the dune grass. “Gnarly Wood” is a scene of two pieces of driftwood on the gritty sand that shows the texture of the wood against the sand.
“Tangled Tree” is a view of a tree with long branches arching over a stone wall with the red of a chimney of a house rising through the branches. In “Homestead,” the house behind the stone wall is a brick red with dashes of bright yellow Daffodils set off against the stone wall. Only two works, “Surfer” and “Surfers,” have figures in them. In one, a young man in a wet suit with a surf board walks on a beach with bluffs behind him and boulders along the shore and in the water. In the other, three surfers sit on the beach looking at the water, perhaps waiting for the surf to be up.
During the week, the gallery hours are Thursday through Monday, 10 -5:00, and by appointment Tuesday and Wednesday. Private appointments can be made by calling the gallery at 401-466-5314, calling or texting 401-301-5591, or emailing info@jessieedwardsgallery.com.