Elena De La Ville has just arrived home after a class at Featherstone Center for the Arts, still seemingly abuzz. You can hear the artist’s passion for teaching instantly as she describes the beeswax collage class as a complete success: “It was incredible!”
For those unfamiliar with the artistic capabilities of beeswax, she explains, “It sort of is using beeswax as glue, to be the medium for what you do, and using whatever people had to make a new piece in collage.”
The opening reception for Elena De La Ville and Traeger diPietro will be held on Saturday, June 28 from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Dragonfly Gallery, 91 Dukes County avenue in Oak Bluffs. The show runs through July 6.
Elena De La Ville is an artist, teacher and bee keeper. A former Island resident, Ms. De La Ville’s career brought her to Florida where she teaches at the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota and at the Arts Center in St. Petersburg.
The Field Gallery invites all to a free artists’ reception Sunday June 29, from 5 to 7 p.m. for an exhibition of new work by Ben Johnson and Janet Woodcock.
Returning artist Ben Johnson’s paintings celebrate the natural world. Images of birds and their surroundings depict the landscape in a bold and colorful style. Mr. Johnson draws his inspiration from the spacious landscape of Martha’s Vineyard. Recently reviewed in American Art Collector (June 2008), he is certainly an artist to watch.
“Art is a way of life in many ways for the family,” Michele Ortlip says. “My generation, the generation before me, the generation before them my grandfather’s father was an artist, my great uncle, my two aunts everybody.” It goes without saying that, included in the generation before her is Michele’s father, Paul Ortlip, the shining star of the family’s serious crop of artistic talent. The fourth generation of Ortlips, under custody of their father, grew up in a Fort Lee, N.J., home overlooking the Manhattan skyline.
East Meets West: Recent Work by Peg Thayer opens at the Pebble Gallery at Featherstone Center for the Arts tomorrow, Saturday, June 28, with a reception from 4 to 6 p.m. Influenced by her studies in East-West psychology, Peg Thayer’s practice of painting reveals her spiritual connection with nature.
This show brings images from the Southwest, California, and Hawaii together with those from the Vineyard.
The show runs daily 1 to 4 p.m. through Saturday, July 5, at the gallery on Barnes Road near the blinker in Oak Bluffs.
Perhaps everyone with an overflowing inbox needs a basket. Kari Lønning, the nationally recognized and collected artist who makes contemporary baskets, explains: “Though many contemporary baskets still suggest a vessel form, often these forms no longer have openings or bottoms — they suggest use rather offer one. As we no longer feel the need to fill baskets with something physical, the contained space becomes as important as the container giving it form.”