An exhibit of new work by Sarah Bird, Gerard Blouin, Cynthia Guild, Heidi Palmer, Elizabeth Pannell, and Fred Poisson opens the 21st season of the Jessie Edwards Studio over the Memorial Day weekend.
Sarah Bird’s oil on panel still life “Melons” captures a stage of ripeness in two melons set against the green background of a plastic sack crackling with texture. That green is picked up in the stripes on the orange melon, like latitude lines on a map, that draw our eye to the rippled texture of the fruit. The pale grey-green melon in the foreground literally bursts with ripeness revealing its succulent red interior.
Two views of working boats offer an interesting contrast. “Chores,” Gerard Blouin’s oil on linen panel, is a close up view of a fisherman going about his routine tasks on his boat amid the bait barrels, hanging lines, and other paraphernalia of his livelihood. Cynthia Guild’s “Flinter,” also an oil on panel, has a different perspective of a working boat. Seen from above, the freighter ripples through swells of blue grey water, its long turquoise deck and white bow pointing toward the viewer and commanding the center of the painting.
In her newest monotypes, Heidi Palmer makes subtle use of color, light, and shadows in her views of fields, sea, and sky. For example, in “Big Rock,” a highly textured very big rock sits in the center right, its various earth tones, edges, and planes set off by the sunlight. A soft blue-grey sky blends into a deeper blue-green sea, while the foreground is dappled with the white foaming surf.
Elizabeth Pannell’s gouache on paper, “Sea Breeze,” is a vivid, sweeping view across a pond to a deep blue sea and light blue sky. Foliage surrounds the pond in colors ranging from light tan and brown to fresh, light greens, to deep, dark, shadowy green and black tones — a scene rich in color and tranquil in mood.
Fred Poisson’s watercolor “Tide Pool” immerses us in luminous and undulating water in the foreground. Seaweed floats gently (and we seem to bob contentedly along with it) toward rocks along the bright white sandy beach, its fissured bluffs topped with bright green grass.
Along with the work of over 24 gallery artists, there is also new pottery and jewelry.