one of a kind

The Gem Gallery awaits the next solo show, "Inside and Out" with works by Suzanne Parrott, opening on Friday, October 9 at 5 PM.

Meanwhile, there are many unique items on display. These assemblages by Carol Cartier capture a certain bemused facade, resourceful and full of character, like islanders.



Martha Morris Gibson crafts these woven baskets with hand dyed reeds.



Diane Wiencke makes use of many materials, such as coins, wax, and pigment, which can be seen is this detail.



Here Tim Nihoff recycles playful plastic toys for this inspired twist on time. Money, too, gets a new context, with his painted additions.



A happy reminder that anytime is a good time to buy island art!

Visit on Saturdays and Sundays from (mostly) 12 - 5 PM. Call 766-5600 for more info.

fall finale

This pastel, "Delta Grass" by Jamie Hogan will be among works on display in an autumn group show featuring over 20 island artists.

The Gem Gallery will resume fall hours, opening on Saturdays and Sundays from 12 - 5 PM.
The weather is still fine for browsing, biking, and buying local art.

island treasure

The latest show opened at the Gem Gallery last night to a delighted crowd. Lavendier Myers is showing large and small oils and prints of favorite subjects such as colorful crows and dancing trees. This artist is a veteran of the Maine art scene, with collectors such as Deborah, an island resident who bought this painting by Lavendier years ago and redid her colors to match.



The Gem exhibit features scenes that evoke the Tuscan landscape, or perhaps a dreamscape with dancing trees. Lavendier grew up along the New England coast, but has lived all over the world. The work gyrates with color, energy, and inspired observations.

Jewelry artist Betsy Stout has shown her signature colorful beadwork in the front gallery all summer.



In the back gallery, alongside the paintings, she is showing these elegant pendants.



A newcomer, Christine Cassidy, joins the show with ethereal photographs that capture serene island moments. Her photographs are featured in the current Peaks Island Calendar, which can be found at the Peaks Cafe.

The show is up for only a week! Stop in and meet the artists, learn their methods and stories. Gallery hours: 11 AM - 5 PM daily. Call 766-2371 for more information.

trio of talents

Another elegant show has been installed at the Gem Gallery. Printmaker and painter, Jane Banquer, joins the pair of potters extraordinaire, Rick Boyd and Pam Williamson. Here Jane chats during the opening evening.



Rick and Pam combine their strengths: he forms the clay, she glazes it.



Rick is a nurse anesthetist whose deft hands now create classically voluptuous vessels. Pam's background is in apparel marketing and product development. Each thrown form suggests a color to her, and she mixes her glazes from recipes, never knowing what will emerge from the kiln. That element of surprise and lack of total control keeps Rick and Pam searching, and firing, and praying to the Kiln God.

Many of their ceramic pieces are glazed in layers, such as this series that has the patina of a long lost Mayan treasure.



Jane Banquer brought a recently renewed enthusiasm for abandoned mediums to her current body of work on exhibit. For years, she worked as a printmaker, creating delicate etchings with an uncanny line and atmosphere. After a rejuvenating summer session in woodblock at Haystack, she has not picked up an etching-needle since. She has approached favorite subjects in both woodcut and paint, enjoying the translations. Here is a wonderfully detailed oil of some hens she chased around Monhegan last summer.



And a certain tree has fascinated her, here in a curvaceous woodcut, an achievement of muscle and magic.



These artists will participate in the upcoming Art Walk on August 29. Meanwhile, feel free to stop at the Gem and chat with them directly. The show runs through September 2.

habitats

The opening of the current show, Habitats, was a bluesy buzz of islanders coming together to view the latest works by Claudia Whitman and Norm Proulx. These two are quite different in approach, yet their vision together is completely simpatico.

A statement on display reads in part, "Painting is about relationships. Every dot, line, or color, though it exists by itself, is seen in the context of how and where it is used. This show, though centered around two distinct themes is about habitats. It seeks to uncover both similarities in the energy that is created in a variety of visual fields. Its hope it to open up new possibilities for visual experience beyond the world we know."

This is a wall of Claudia's mixed media pieces. Claudia's passions are represented in visual emblems: a dove for peace, a horse for action. She layers these elements in and through her myriad collages that leap with color and surprising juxtapositions.



Here's a close up:



Norm's series of small paintings call us to another place, a home in the mind. A village of invented spaces that looks familiar somehow...



A Gem Gallery opening is always good for catching up. Here Gem Gallery founder, Jane Newkirk, announces her marriage to delighted friend, Diana.



Jane opened the Gem with owner Kristen Chalmers in 2003, but left Peaks Island two years ago to pursue other goals and dreams, leaving the gallery to run itself collectively. Over 25 of us are sharing the tasks of creating, hanging, promoting, gallery sitting, and selling, while Kristen pinch hits every show.


Island Times publisher, Kevin Attra, jazzes up the event with clarinetist, John Zemanek.



Habitats is on view through Tuesday, August 18. Monday and Tuesday hours this week are 2 - 5 PM. 62 Island Avenue, a short walk from the ferry landing on Peaks. Stop in!

Next up: Norm's partner, Jane Banquer will show her eloquent prints and paintings along with Rick Boyd and Pamela Williamson, potters extraordinaire. Scroll down past the last post for more information on their show. Opening reception is this Thursday, August 20.

amazing feats of nimble vision

Step right up, folks! It's another new show at the Gem Gallery, this one a collaboration of Carol Cartier and Diane Wiencke, masters of style and daredevilish creations.



The opening was last Saturday evening and the show remains through August 5. Don't miss it! Carol and Diane made great use of the petite space, with small but diverse works of hand-made mysteries, such as this doll by Carol.



Here's another one, an acrobat of delicate proportions facing razor-sharp odds.



Carol recently signed up for a tinware class at MECA, only to see it cancelled. Did that stop her? She stomped over to the teacher's studio, and had herself a private hootenanny cuttin' up tin like a crazy quilter from Kentucky.



Both Carol and Diane love shape, bold color, pattern, all infused with meaning that meanders into the mind, a subtle contrast to all the visual.



Here is a wall of Diane's small works on paper, playing with the circus theme.



And a couple of close-ups:





She had a door full of "paper bag paintings" for the downright bargain of $50. each. You have to see them to love them. She says:

"These paintings are made of cut up paper bags. They are dipped in wax, then painted with plaster, sanded, scraped and painted with white out and ball point pen. Poetry pages are vintage and basically jumped onto the pages themselves."

Now that is an act of magic!

Step right up, folks! See island art at it's best. Creating something from just about nothing that swells your heart with beauty.

The previous show was incredible as well. Paul Brahms never ceases to amaze. He filled the gallery with liquid light, brushy paintings that capture moments of the day with nimble vision.



Paul is seen here, chatting with Deb Chase, avid collector of island art.



This study of a boy at play is full of love.



Nathanial Chalfant, a middle school student, added some of his driftwood sculptures to Paul's exhibit.



The weathered form makes a symbolic contrast to the still butterfly.

Magic, delight, and daring feats.

Step right up, folks!

Ppp’s, Three Artists Fill the GEM Gallery with Pottery, Painting and Fine Prints

Between August 20 – September 2 potters Rick Boyd and Pamela Williamson and printmaker and painter, Jane Banquer join to fill display stands and walls with new and recent work. You are invited to the opening or to make a picnic day of island art along with walking and biking on village roads or rocky shore.

The exhibit features thrown pottery in elegant decorative and utilitarian forms with glazed surfaces that vary from subtle color and texture to a reflective metallic sheen and black and white and color reduction woodcut prints reinterpreting paintings in oil and acrylic. Visit the GEM Gallery at 62 Island Avenue, Peaks Island, 207-766-5600 or Pamela and Rick at 766-3050 and Jane at 766-2246. An opening reception is Thursday, August 20 with daily gallery hours 10 AM to 7 PM.



After 35 years as a potter Rick is still amazed with the process of transforming balls of clay into works of art. It's about centering the human body and making a connection with the clay. He works with a variety of clay bodies each with its own characteristic's and his energy and the feel of the clay defines the shape of the piece. Rick does the throwing and trimming and Pamela does the cleaning and glazing. This is a great collaboration as he admits to being somewhat colorblind and she is wheel challenged. Surface color is achieved by using various firing techniques and by using slips and glazes made in the studio on Peaks Island. Pottery is a marriage of art and science and he’s always looking for new techniques and advances while never forgetting the basics. Success sometimes comes from failure and circumstances beyond control, after all in the end it is the firing process and the Kiln God who retain final control of the piece.

Rick has refined his craft with courses at Vanderbilt University, Maine College of Art, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts and Warren Mackenzie at Red Lodge Clay Center, Montana and has served as visiting Artist at Nicolet College in Wisconsin. Rick and Pamela’s work has been shown at galleries and shows across the United States. He is a member of the American Ceramic Society Potters Council, National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts and the Maine Crafts Association.



Jane Banquer studied at the DeCordova Museum, the Boston Museum School and at Smith College with Leonard Baskin and Amy Namowitz Worthen. She was a state juried member of the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen, where she served to set fine art print and photography standards and to review the work of new artist applicants for exhibition and sales throughout the state. She is represented by Addison Woolley Gallery, Portland, Maine and formerly by Wenniger Graphics, Boston, Rockport, and Cape Cod, MA, among others. Her work has been seen in juried exhibitions throughout the region and was included in the 2006 Maine Print Project.

Images in her painting, relief and intaglio prints are derived from the tangible world around her of human form, sea, land and creatures of her surroundings. As objects they’re both contained in natural and manipulated, reconstructed space.

summer shows begin

The Gem Gallery has moved into it's summer season of wham bam shows: one or two week shows in the back gallery featuring one or more of the full-time members. Victor Romanyshyn's fabulous display of photographs came and went before I could blink. Or document them.

Currently in the gallery are a mother and daughter duo who visit the island every summer. Here is one of Chris (mom) Harper-Fahey's watercolors:



Her daughter, Dustine Price, has a bolder approach, working in several mediums: painted furniture, painting, assemblage. Between the two of them, they have the gallery covered.



Next up will be Paul Brahms, who will open his solo one-week exhibit of oil paintings on July 16. These two are already in the gallery. Love this funky car in front of a cabin. Many of Paul's paintings document his road travels.



The Gem Gallery is at 62 Island Avenue, left on Welch Street after you hike up from the ferry landing. Hours vary with each artist, but core hours (in a perfect world) are:

Monday to Wednesday: 10 AM - 3 PM
Thursday and Friday: 10 AM - 8 PM
Saturday and Sunday: 10 AM - 5 PM

Stop in, just to meet the artist of the moment and discover what islanders do between boats.