PRESS RELEASE ( MARTHA'S VINEYARD) Louisa Gould Gallery is pleased to announce a new show, “ Vineyard Realism,” to feature the work of Linda Besse, Flick Ford, Carol Rowan, Christie Scheele, Peggy Turner Zablotny and Susanne Hill. The show will open on Thursday, June 30 with an artist reception Saturday, July 2 from 5:00-7:00 p.m.

Linda Besse's new work includes familiar Vineyard elements such as the buoys in “Dry Docked” and the vibrant cottages in Oak Bluffs. She paints primarily in oil for its luminosity, depth, and intensity of color. Besse is a nationally known artist with deep Vineyard ties stretching back to the 1930s. She studied geology at Colgate University and eventually earning a Master of Science degree. To gather reference for her paintings, she has traveled to every U.S. state, 35 countries, and all seven continents. She has traversed remote tundra in Labrador researching the caribou migration, been dropped off by float plane to salmon-filled streams to watch grizzly bears in Alaska, paddled 459 miles above the Arctic Circle on the Noatak River, and snorkeled with beluga whales in the Hudson Bay. She returns to the Vineyard every year. Besse is a Signature Member of the Society of Animal Artists and a member of the Oil Painters of America. Her work has been exhibited nationally.

Flick Ford is a new artist to the Louisa Gould Gallery and to the island. Raised in Westchester County, New York, Ford has spent a lifetime fishing across the United States and in Canada. His methodical work in watercolor strives to record the fish and capture what Ford describes as their “iridescent beauty.” Some of his work for the show will include “False Albacore,” “Mako Shark,” and “Sperm Whale.” Ford took formal watercolor classes in the '60s, took classes in figure drawing and graphic design from 1973 to 1976, and later studied art at Evergreen State College in Washington. He has published several books including FISH: 77 Great Fish of North America (Greenwich Workshop Press, 2006), BIG: The 50 Greatest World Record Catchers (Greenwich Workshop Press, 2008), and WILD: 75 Freshwater Tropical Fish of the World (Greenwich Workshop Press, 2013). The gallery will host a book signing with the artist on July 2 at 10:00 a.m.

Carol Rowan is a native of Rowayton, Connecticut. Her work for this show includes a distinctly American flair such as “The Red '48” and “Flag Day” as well a series of animal works including “Chessy.” She received a BFA in painting from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. She was awarded the prestigious drawing award from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1993. She maintains studios in Washington, D.C. And Maine. Her work is widely collected by both private and corporate collectors.

Christie Scheele is a minimalist landscape artist who paints “not just the light, but the air itself, and how these affect the edges and colors of the scenes depicted.” Her work brings a slow sense of power as shown in her new work “Sweeping Sea/Glowing Sky” and “Light/Dark Cloudbank” as well as a dreamy calm as seen in her piece “Summer Blues/Soft Clouds.” Scheele received her BFA in 1980 and began exhibiting in 1985. She spent a year on fellowship at the Royal Academy of Fine Art at the University Complutense of Madrid from 1978-79. As a full-time painter, Christie Scheele's work has been collected nationally and internationally by hundreds of private and public collectors. These collections include the Queens Museum of Art, the Dorsky Museum, the Tyler Museum of Art, American Airlines, Waterford Crystal, Elaine Kamarck, Kelsey and Camille Grammer, and Howard and Ellen Greenburg. Her paintings were featured in the film “Broken Flowers” (in the scene with Jessica Lange) and “Perfect Strangers” (on the set of Halle Barry's character), have appeared in Architectural Digest, and have been written about and reviewed extensively in the Hudson Valley and beyond.

Peggy Turner Zablotny's stunning botanical works transform her garden into art. She says “My love of art, design, nature, and gardening have become my unique form of creative expression. I design and garden on Martha's Vineyard creating botanical compositions from plant materials and flowers that I grow and collect. My botanical compositions are about my experience and pleasure of discovery...the joy of transforming inner revelations into visual statements of form, color, and texture. For me it's about searching, looking, and seeing these discoveries and understanding how amazing the world is right in front of us each and every day.” Zablotny will give an Artist Talk at the gallery on Tuesday, July 12 at 6:00 p.m.

Suzanne Hill atmospheric ceramics are truly unique vessels. Suzanne  had been throwing for over 40 years, even her students are becoming well-known. Suzanne has been visiting the Vineyard for many years. Her studio is in Concord, MA. The saggar vessels are in blues, tans, pinks, orange and black. Suzanne says, "Each piece has a little bit of magic, I'm never exactly sure how the firing will come out". The difficult thing for a collection is which piece or pieces to choose from.

Please join us on Saturday, July 2, from 5:00-7:00 p.m. for the opening of “ Vineyard Realism” and throughout the show. Louisa Gould Gallery is located at 54 Main Street in the historical cultural district of downtown Vineyard Haven on the island of Martha's Vineyard. Please call (508) 693.7373 for further information or visit the website at www.louisagould.com to view the online show and obtain directions.