Louisa Gould Gallery is pleased to announce a new art exhibit, " Interpreting the Vineyard Landscape," with new works by John Holladay, Ellen Liman, and James Murray. Each artist explores a various aspect of our island. The show opens Wednesday, August 4, and runs through August 17, 2010. The opening reception will be on Saturday, August 7, from 5-7pm, with live music by Michael Haydn. Light refreshments will be served.

John Holladay will show new watercolors, for which medium he is most well known, along with new acrylics and oils on canvas. John moved to the Vineyard in the year 2000 after listening to a curator who said "If you want to be a landscape artist you need to live on the coast!" "So I chose the Cape and the Islands, settling in Martha's Vineyard because I fell in love with the landscapes, but most of all the people. I believe that teaching, painting, and learning are my hobbies. I paint in different media and I paint different subject matter because I want to continue to challenge myself artistically. I believe that Martha's Vineyard is one of the greatest places to paint landscapes. The seasons change, the colors change, the subject matter changes; from the ocean to marshes to the rock fences, it all is so different. Every time you turn the corner, there is something new to paint. Every time I pick a landscape, I interpret it by my feelings, so my colors are picked through the weather and the season--but really from my heart. I always say, when you can combine realism and abstraction, you have a great painting. I hope that when you see one of my paintings, you will see my side of the Vineyard."

John's paintings of the Vineyard are quintessential island. He truly captures that feeling of the Vineyard--"the feeling I want to have all year round, when times stands still on the Vineyard in the summer," says Louisa Gould. "The painting titled " Reflection" is a timeless piece of summer, of a summer home, of a pond on a bright summer day that brings me back to my childhood."

John has been represented by the Gallery for four years. In addition, John has taught art for 20 years and recently won The National Scholastic Teaching Award for teaching excellence. John received his medal at Carnegie Hall in June. John Holladay is also a painting instructor with Martha's Vineyard Workshops, a new addition to the Louisa Gould Gallery family of programs. Martha's Vineyard Workshops offers art, photography, and writing workshops for the Summer & Fall 2010. www.marthasvineyardworkshops. com.

Ellen Liman continues to paint in a colorist style. Her new oil painting series, "Menemsha, Monkonikey, Squibnocket Pond and Tisbury", celebrate the vitality and the subdued tones of Martha's Vineyard. Ellen shows us both sides of the Vineyard: when the sun is out and when it is not, the brilliance and the softer, quieter Vineyard that is always there if we look for it and the Vineyard that awaits us when we are quiet. For example, in " Makonikey Bay," Ellen captures the changing environment just after a storm has passed. There are many layers of purple and grey in the sky, while the butterfly and the goldenrod flowers bring contrast and a shot of new life to the landscape. Ellen has interpreted both sides of the Vineyard landscape with a fluid and bold brush.

Ellen has been painting on the Vineyard for more than 20 years. A graduate of Barnard College, she has also studied at The Rhode Island School of Design, The Art Student League in New York City, and the National Academy of Design. Ellen paints from her studios on the Vineyard, New York, and Palm Beach.

James Murray's multipurpose sculptures provide a window into another aspect of the Vineyard, that of housing and home. James invites the question, what is a home? James' new Home Series II, continued from last year, expands on a home, but explores homes and homes in a community. House Post #2 asks, what is our Vineyard community? " Welcome Post 6" brings the human and landscape together: are we not a part of our landscape?

James' four large and two small sculptures are made in a variety of materials, including cast and welded aluminum, walnut, copper, glass, steel, and limestone. The four larger sculptures can fit into an indoor or outdoor landscape.

“ My sculpture is an extension of what I do in my daily life. Every thing I work on, the sculptures, the furniture I build, even the apartments I renovate in the city, is all about form and scale. My work is a blend of material and technique. I love so many materials – carving stone, timber, welding steel, and aluminum, and o-boy, the wonderful found objects. Site specific sculpture is also appealing to me because I have the opportunity to connect the art work to the environment in which it will dwell."'

James Murray was born in Brooklyn, New York. He is a graduate of the School of Visual Arts in New York City and has worked for thirty years out of his loft and studio in the East Village, NYC. He also continues his life long pursuit of the arts in his studios in the Hudson Valley and on Martha’s Vineyard.

 

Please join us in this exploration of the Vineyard, " Interpreting the Vineyard Landscape," between August 4 and 17 and at the Opening Artists' Party, Saturday, August 7, from 5-7pm. Michael Haydn will play the keyboard and light refreshments will be served. The Louisa Gould Gallery is located at 54 Main St., in the historic town of Vineyard Haven on the island of Martha's Vineyard. Please call (508) 693.7373 for directions or visit www.louisagould.com.