Whitney Knapp Bowditch ~ An Island Apart

A trove of new works in oils by Whitney Knapp Bowditch will be on exhibit at the Jessie Edwards Studio from July 9 to July 20. A virtual reception video will be released on July 9.

Working with brush and palette knife, Bowditch continues to experiment with the relationship between color and texture on a variety of surfaces, including paper, canvas, and wood panel. “Invitation,” an oil on canvas is the largest work in the show at 3’x4’. The viewer is invited to choose a path to walk either down a steep slope to the sea or along a path that meanders along a grassy ridge line.

Some of the many coves on the island are featured in this show. “Cormorant Cove” is a view of the beach in the foreground, boats anchored in the Salt Pond, and the Coast Guard Station in the upper left. Farther along the West Side, “Dorry’s Cove Road” is a view of stone walls, fields, and outbuildings along the dirt road leading to the cove in the distance. “Cow Cove” is a view across the beach looking south from the North Light to the cove where cows waded ashore from the settlers’ boats centuries ago. 

Several works record the phases of the setting sun from various places on the island. “Twilight Second Bluff” looks west across the dark green shrubbery on the bluffs to an orange, yellow, and white blaze of the sun, while “Moonrise” captures a pale moon in blue clouds with the pale peach and pink streaks of the sun setting along the rocky shoreline on the West Side.

In “Sunset Andy’s Way,” the beach, pond, and grasses are deeply shadowed in tones of grey, while crimson, orange, and yellow streaks are an intense evocation of the setting sun. Similar strands of color stretch across the scene in “Remains of the Day” which shows a sandy path through grass down to the water. In contrast, “Sunset at the Cut” looks across water to Beans Point. The oranges and yellows of the sun are reflected in the water in tones of pink, purple, and white that, in turn, reflect those in the sky.

“Breakwater Beacon” has a nocturnal feeling in shades of deep blue with the lights of the beacon in Old Harbor casting dabs of bright turquoise across the water to the beach below the Surf Hotel.

Only two works have people in them. “Mohegan Bluffs with Bathers” is a view of bathers on the narrow beach at the bluffs while “Felicity” is a scene of bathers and paddle boards on the more expansive sand of Mansion Beach.