Good Morning Gloucester

Glass: Realism to Abstraction

Photography by Judith Monteferrante

Gallery 53 on Rocky Neck, 53 Rocky Neck Ave., Gloucester

Wednesday, July 22 – Tuesday, Aug. 11

Opening Reception: Saturday, July 25  6-8 pm

“Glass: Realism to Abstraction” is the title of local photographer Judith Monteferrante’s upcoming Summer Artist Series show at Gallery 53 on Rocky Neck in Gloucester. The show opens on Wednesday, July 22 and closes on Tuesday, Aug. 11. The Opening Reception is set for Saturday, July 25 from 6-8 pm. Everyone is welcome to come and meet the artist.

This photography project started for Judith with the death of her only child and her desire to avoid the holidays. On a cruise in 2007 she explored the book “Light, Science and Magic” and found she could capture images of inanimate objects with their reflections that together represented her private vision.

“Photographing glass and its reflections, creating abstractions from simplicity to pure indulgence in subject matter, while adhering to the principle that light illuminates and shadows define, led me to this metaphysical exploration of reality,” says Monteferante.

A fine art photographer living in Gloucester and Scottsdale, AZ, and a retired cardiologist, Judith’s skills at imaging the heart were transferred to the study of nature’s intimate places. Her main focus is on fine art photography of flowers, often interacting with water, still life, glassware abstracts as well as landscapes to seascapes. She believes that years of witnessing and helping those who are ill and dying  sharpened her sensitivity and allowed her to see beauty in the world with precision and with her personal stamp.

She was awarded Copley Artist status with the Copley Society of Art in Boston, is a Moab Master photographer (by Legion Paper),  a member of many art associations including Sonoran Arts League and the Rockport Arts Association, and was the former Artistic Director of the Rocky Neck Art Colony. Judith has gallery representation in Massachusetts, New York and Arizona.

Judith recently had two solo shows at the Rockport Art Association and Marblehead Art Association. She was accepted into fifteen juried shows in 2014-15 as well as two invitational exhibits. Judith has won numerous awards, most recently First Place in the juried SeARTS: Art @Bass Rocks 2014-5 exhibition in Gloucester and second place in the winter members’ exhibition 2015 at the Copley Society of Art, Boston. She was published as a Silver Award winner in “Color” magazine in 2011 and won the Haystack Residency Scholarship Deer Isle, ME from the Copley Society of Art in 2010. Judith’s work is in many private and corporate collections.

Third Summer Exhibit: July 25 – August 25

Opening Reception: Friday, July 24^th, 6-8 pm

The Third Summer Show will be on view throughout the Association’s Galleries.  The exhibit highlights the RAA’s Members in Painting, Sculpture and Graphics in the Main Building, Hibbard & Maddock’s galleries and also features it’s Photography Members in the Martha Moore room just at the top of the stairs.

---

Also on display at this time:

Artist Showcase: George Martin July 23 – July 28

Artist Demonstration in Oil Painting in the Hibbard Gallery
Saturday, July 25^th at 10:30 am. The Showroom (Upstairs)

This summer at the RAA we are featuring Artist Members in their own solo exhibits in the Showroom, just at the top of the stairs in the Main building.  At 10:30 am on the Saturday of their show, the artists will be offering a free demonstration in the Hibbard Gallery.

The RAA is open free to the public Monday – Saturday 10 am – 5 pm, Sunday 12 – 5
Rockport Art Association, 12 Main Street Rockport, MA • 978-546-6604 www.rockportartassn.org • info@rockportartassn.org

New exhibition features 39 paintings from July 11 to Nov. 29

One of the country’s most important painters of the early 20^th century, John Sloan (1871-1951) made his name painting urban daily life in New York City before coming to Cape Ann for five summers (1914-1918) to paint scenes of the sea, marshes, homes, rocky outcroppings, downtown views, and landscapes that proved to be a hallmark of his career.

In a special loan exhibition, the Cape Ann Museum will feature 39 paintings that Sloan created while in Gloucester, thought to be among his finest work and most prolific period. The Museum holds five major paintings in its permanent collection and will be borrowing 30 more pieces for the exhibit from a wide-reaching network of institutions across the country. JOHN SLOAN Gloucester Days opens July 11 and runs through Nov. 29.

Sloan was born in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania in 1871, grew up in Philadelphia, and studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. In 1904, he moved to New York City where he affiliated with a group of artists known as “The Eight;” in addition to Sloan, the group included Robert Henri, Maurice Prendergast, William Glackens, Everett Shinn, Arthur Davies, Ernest Lawson, and George Luks. The Eight evolved into the better-known Ashcan School, a loose-knit group of artists who sought to capture the reality of daily life in New York City.

The forward-thinking Armory Show of 1913 in New York was a turning point for Sloan. Inspired by the progressive work he saw there, Sloan sought new venues for painting.  He was invited by fellow artist and friend Charles Allan Winter to Gloucester in the summer of 1914, and together they rented a little red cottage near Rocky Neck where Sloan would often paint two landscapes a day. The house was a popular gathering spot for many of their friends, including Stuart Davis.  The red cottage still stands on Gloucester’s East Main Street.

Intrigued by the lush green seaside grass juxtaposed against the blue sea, Sloan captured recognizable scenes downtown and along the shoreline. He returned to Cape Ann for four more summers. “After coming back with our easels, canvases, and paint boxes, we would each sit in a corner of the dining room to study our work,” Sloan recalled. “One summer Stuart Davis and family shared the cottage. We went out painting together. All of us were interested in developing different orchestrations of color on the palette.” By 1919, Sloan sought new landscapes for his work and moved to New Mexico.

Cape Ann Museum’s Sloan collection includes: Sunflowers, Rocky Neck, 1914; Old Cone (Uncle Sam) 1914; Glare on the Bay, c. 1914; Red Warehouses at Gloucester, 1914; and Dogtown, Ruined Blue Fences, 1916.

The exhibition will also feature  additional  paintings  on loan from the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College; Lehigh University Art Galleries; Arkell Museum in Canajoharie, NY; Bowdoin College Museum of Art; Syracuse University Art Collection; Delaware Art Museum; Duke University Museum of Art; University of Washington Museum of Art; Norton Museum of Art in Palm Beach, FL; New Britain Museum of American Art; Tacoma Art Museum; Kraushaar Galleries; Parrish Art Museum in NY; as well as private collections.

“Gloucester afforded the first opportunity for continuous work in landscape, and I really made the most of it,” Sloan recalled. “Working from nature gives, I believe, the best means of advance in color and spontaneous design.”

---

Related JOHN SLOAN Gloucester Days lecture series:

Thursday, July 23 at 7 p.m.:
Three Moderns Paint Gloucester: Sloan, Hartley, and Hopper on Cape Ann

Presented by Carol Troyen, an independent scholar and author, and the Kristin and Roger Servison Curator Emerita of American Paintings at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Although they never overlapped in Gloucester, three of the greatest painters of the early 20^th century – John Sloan, Edward Hopper, and Marsden Hartley – spent significant parts of their careers on Cape Ann. The three artists’ responses to the region differed markedly, but the area’s appealing vistas led each to a new and modern style. The lecture will trace their steps through Gloucester and compare what each found there.

Thursday, Aug. 13 at 7 p.m.:
John Sloan, Robert Henri, and John Butler Yeats: A Portrait of Friendship

Presented by Avis Berman, an independent writer, art historian, and author of Rebels on Eighth Street: Juliana Force and the Whitney Museum of American Art; James McNeill Whistler and Edward Hopper’s New York.

Understanding how artists consider portraits and the deeper emotional currents that inspire them is especially revealing in the case of American painter and printmaker John Sloan. He could not have matured into the artist that he was without his connection to two other forceful personalities and fellow painters, Robert Henri and John Butler Yeats. The intense, transformative, and intellectual friendships were central to Sloan’s life and work.

Friday, Oct. 30 at 7 p.m.:
Passing through Gloucester: John Sloan Between City and Country

Presented by Michael Lobel, Professor of Art History and Director of the Master’s Program in Modern and Contemporary Art, Criticism, and Theory at Purchase College, State University of New York and author of Image Duplicator: Roy Lichtenstein and the Emergence of Pop Art; James Rosenquist: Pop Art, Politics and History in the 1960s; and John Sloan: Drawing on Illustration.

In contrast to the urban setting of John Sloan’s most memorable Ashcan School paintings, the works the artist produced in Gloucester are more pastoral in nature. Sloan’s time in Gloucester overlapped not only with his own political interests but during the era of World War I. Those political considerations will be discussed in how they relate to Sloan’s images of New York and his treatment of Gloucester’s seemingly idyllic scenes.

Tickets for the lecture series are $10 for members and $15 for non-members. For the series, tickets are $25 for members and $40 for non-members. For more information, call 978-283-0455 x10 or email: info@capeannmuseum.org.

A sad sight on Straitsmouth Island while lobstering right now.

Armed with only my iPhone (when will I learn?) the photos aren’t great.

I am guessing it is a minke whale.

Pretty much hanging around in my “Man Cave.” I’m keeping things neat and orderly, and enjoying everything from the written word to video. More later.

Goddamn the lobster was sweet.  Three lobster rolls,  strawberry shortcake and  a nice adult beverage.  Can’t get more New England summer than that!

Wisdoms Heart

Hi Joey-

I was hoping to share an interesting presentation that I attended at at Wisdom’s Heart in Gloucester Center last week. It is an example of the wide array of special events that are offered and open to the public. Check out their summer schedule at  wisdomsheart.org.

The presenter was Julie Upton who resides in both Rockport and Kathmandu, Nepal and is a practitioner, student and teacher of the dharma, yoga and meditation. Her slide show/lecture  describing spiritual adventure tours she has given through Northern India and Nepal was fascinating! People can find out more about her guided tours at middlewaytours.com .

Thanks for sharing!

Best- Janet

---

Sail the Schooner Ardelle with Maritime Gloucester! 

Register today for Coastal Explorers – Seafarers
Ages 14 – 17, August 3rd – August 7th.
Opportunity for leadership and teambuilding abound during this week-long adventure program as students participate in all aspects of shipboard operation including voyage planning, safety, seamanship, navigation, engines, sail trim and boat handling. No prior sailing experience required.

---

Temple Ahavat Achim

Mark Your Calendars:

TAA’s “The Best Odds in Town” Raffle Drawing!

Thursday, July 30th* from 6-8 pm

Wine, cheese and live auction with great items including Red Sox Tickets and Restaurant Gift Certificates!

300 Tickets!

10 Prizes!

You have a 1 in 30 chance to win! Raffle Tickets are $100!

The Prizes: 1 $5,000 prize 1 $3,000 prize 3 $1,000 prizes 5 $500 prizes
Each raffle ticket entitles admission for 2 people at the July 30th Event!
If you haven’t gotten your ticket(s) yet, there’s still time – to purchase, please call Natalia at the TAA office at (978) 281-0739.
We are accepting cash, checks and credit cards!

*You do not have to be present at the drawing to win. Other contributions to this fundraiser are welcome!