Pastural scenes, roaring ocean waves, birds on the wing, seaside visions, agrarian activities, moments in time, color and light – those and many more adjectives can be used to express what can be found at the Marion Art Center (MAC)’s current exhibit. On July 12, the MAC opened its members exhibit to a packed audience of art lovers and artists.
The walls of the lower and upper galleries are filled with glorious examples of artistic execution at its finest with some 75 works done by MAC members.
Many artists selected the local seaside environment either at rest or full of movement as the theme of their works.
One of the more serene images glows with moonlight, as found in Peter Stone’s “First Passage”, an oil painting evocative of an early American setting with soaring pines, above which hangs a crescent moon with two voyagers quietly paddling on a pond towards the far shore. Others depict sailboats gliding across the water’s surface, as seen in Bonnie Colman’s “Westport Sails”, an acrylic full of wind and action.
Alice Shire knows a thing or two about visual arts. “I was a teacher for 39 years,” she shared. Shire studied at the only state-funded college for visual arts in the country, Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston in the early 1960’s. A native Bostonian, she sought out a quieter environment when she graduated. That search landed her a teaching position in the Duxbury school system where she taught hundreds of students in her nearly 40 years there. “I had more tenure than the janitor,” she quipped. That joyous temperament can be seen in her watercolor titled “The Herd”, a painting of cows that simply makes one smile.
Charlene Mackiewicz studied art in college, but as often happens, life pulled her in another direction – finance. After a long career that found her not only in the corporate domain, but also in the world of computer technology instructing others on a wide variety of what were then cutting-edge applications. She has since returned to what the human hand could create unaided by software – painting. Mackiewicz submitted two works – one of the iconic Ned’s Point Lighthouse in Mattapoisett, and the other a diminutive piece full of beachy color titled “Beach Stroll”. She is currently a student of another MAC member, Sarah Brown, who teaches pastels from her home-based studio in Marion.
Brown also shared one of her many canvasses titled “Awesome Wave”. The image shows an enormous energy-filled moment when volumes of seawater pound against rock – there is sound and power in the image.
St. George Tucker Aufranc is another late blooming artist. “I didn’t start painting until I was 50,” he confessed with a sly smile. He said that the husband of one of his former patients – Aufranc is a retired orthopedic surgeon – was a well-known watercolor artist. He asked for lessons.
“He was tough: he made you do things correctly,” said Aufranc. “He told me my work was terrible.” But Aufranc was undeterred by critical observation. His teacher was internationally renowned artist Fritz Kubitz. “He told me to paint 50 paintings and read everything I could about watercolor painting,” added Aufranc. “Three years later I did my first one-man show.”
While he is a master of watercolors, Aufranc is also a sculptor. His two most accessible pieces sit on the private property abutting the MAC to the north, and the other is at the Mattapoisett Museum on Church Street as part of their summer exhibit, “Inspiration: Time & Texture”.
“Woman In a Black Dress” by Elwin Williamson is a bit of photographic magic, magic that can be found when an instant of emotion or slice of life is captured by the camera. In the photo’s foreground, a man turned away from us, possibly a deliveryman, is stopped short by the sight of a beautiful woman in the background about to cross the street in his direction. If he waits, their paths will surely cross; if he goes, they will be the proverbial ships passing in the night. We stand halted beside the photographer relishing the moment without knowing what comes next. But who cares? The image is prefect.
And there is Bunny Mogilnicki’s “CA Coast” done in pastels, with its image of soaring cliffs above the Pacific Ocean where the hustle of human activity is blown away by fresh breezes and the vastness of the coast can be imaged outside the edges of the canvass.
These artists and more can be viewed through August 10. Visit www.marionartcenter.org for gallery dates and times.
By Marilou Newell