The Field Gallery in West Tisbury opened Sunday for the season with an exciting display of new work by artists from Alison Shaw and Sue Dawson’s advanced photography mentoring program.
Closely watched still lifes, dazzling sunrises on the beach, and explorations of texture in natural and man-made landscapes are among the images created by the 10 photographers on the show as they studied with Ms. Shaw and Ms. Dawson for the past few months.
“We encourage people not to do the obvious, but to dig deeper,” said Ms. Dawson as she, Ms. Shaw, and nine of the show’s artists mingled outside the gallery in the sunshine on Sunday morning.
The result is a group exhibition of remarkable diversity. Beach scene lovers will find work by Dave Lear from Harwich, Rob Skinnon from Cheshire, Conn. And there’s plenty to admire, from Somerville and Provincetown’s Emory Petrack. Each of them brings their own individual perspective to the constantly changing spectacle of sea, coast and sky.
Mr. Lear specializes in sunrises. “It’s an easy time to plan,” joked the Harwich resident, who said he started his practice at the first sunrise of each year and expanded from there.
The advanced mentoring program included photographers from all over the country. – Mark Alan Lovewell
Mr Petrack also photographs the borderline moments between day and night, while Mr Skinnon – who also acts as the mentoring teaching assistant, helping his colleagues create websites and design workflows – looks beyond the basics of the show stop of island beaches to the subtle dynamics of changing weather.
“My whole purpose … is to pay homage to how beautiful it is here,” said Mr. Skinnon, a frequent island-linked vineyard visitor. “For me, most of the time I’m here is so therapeutic.”
While much of last year’s mentoring activity was conducted online due to the Covid-19 pandemic, attendees traveled from across the country to be at the gallery on the opening day. Sarah Bowman from Los Angeles photographed women before the pandemic. The lock forced her to rethink the way she worked, she said.
“With Covid, I could only walk out my back door,” Ms. Bowman said. “You used to try to walk and exercise as fast as you could … I didn’t have to commute so I just hiked.”
Ms. Bowman left her camera at home and used her iPhone to explore the neighborhood streets and courtyards. She brought back a number of city portraits that bordered on abstraction. Ms. Bowman’s 20 square aluminum prints hanging on the gallery wall in an Instagram-like grid need to be looked at more closely in order to show themselves one after the other as an empty bike rack, fire escape or zigzag shadow on a flight of concrete steps.
The group exhibition varies in its themes, from beach scenes to still lifes to more abstract works. – Mark Alan Lovewell
She names the grouping Morning Juxtapositions, and the gallery sells a poster of all 20 with the title and an epigram from Lao Tsu: “If you don’t change direction, you could end up getting where you are going.”
“This is a kind of Covid learning,” said Ms. Bowman.
Chilmarker Hilary Noyes-Keene’s structural close-ups of plastered, patched and painted walls and seasonal trees and swimmers by Patti Roberts of Tisbury / Larchmont, NY, also enter the realm of the abstract without losing their connection to the physical world.
Inspired by the exhortation of poet Mary Oliver, “To pay attention, this is our endless and real work.” Andrea Dawson from Northern Ohio turned her lens on winter trees and twigs, dried grass and leaves, and pearls of water on the underside of the leaves. invite the viewer to examine the beauty of things that are normally overlooked.
Elizabeth Rylander of Arlington, Virginia also explored the natural world around her home, capturing in detail the delicate beauty of wildflowers, songbirds and leaves.
Carol Lehman, a seasonal resident of West Tisbury from Larkspur, California, wrote in her artist’s statement that she seeks harmony in the chaos of life by “creating calm images – uncomplicated in shape and form and economical with light”.
Ms. Lehman’s pigment prints of fruits and vegetables are also convincing and vivid, glowing in their dark surroundings with the intensity of portraits of old masters.
Maryland’s east coast Beth Horstman also chose a dark background for her photographs of brightly colored fishing lures. The project started when she rediscovered one of her grandfather’s old baits, Ms. Horstman said, and grew as she searched the family tackle box.
Ms. Shaw and Ms. Dawson, who own and operate the Alison Shaw Gallery on Dukes County Avenue, have been providing hands-on photography sponsorship on the island and through online learning for years. The advanced sponsorships build on the basic program to lead aspiring art photographers to their own careers.
“It’s full professional mentoring,” said Ms. Dawson, an experienced designer and editor who co-teaches the program with Ms. Shaw, her wife. “I bring a very different perspective,” said Ms. Dawson.
While Ms. Shaw shares the skills that made her the island’s most famous photographer, Ms. Dawson coaches emerging artists on how to manage their careers and develop outstanding work.
“Our core philosophy is to help people identify their unique creative voices,” she said. “It’s a critical process for an art photographer.”
The group exhibition runs through May 27 at the Field Gallery, which is open daily.