(Martha’s Vineyard) Louisa Gould Gallery presents the Fourth Annual Abstract Show, “ Rhythm and Blues , ” , which opens on September 1, 2011 and continues until September 15, 2011. The artists’ reception will be held on Saturday, September 3, 2011 from 5-7 p.m. (Labor Day weekend). The exhibit showcases the work of five artists: Marsha Staiger, Sondra Arkin, Roberta Gross, Laura Roosevelt , and Ellyn Weiss . The works display unique approaches using a variety of media, including acrylic on cradled board or paper; wax and resin; monoprints on paper; and giclee abstract photography on paper. Come by and meet the artists at the opening and enjoy light refreshments.

Marsha Staiger , an Island visitor, is an award winning artist from the metropolitan Washington D.C. area. Last year, she won the “Artist of the Year” award from the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, VA as well as an Alexandria Commission for the Arts Award. Her paintings reflect her sensitivity to the textures, colors, paint layers , and collage where she combines, isolates , and recombines areas. Her current series,” R&B2GO , ” an acronym for rhythm and balance, invokes a connection to rhythm and blues music, with each piece ready “to go” and which can be displayed singly or in multiples, horizontally, vertically , or at an angle. As Marsha states, “the R&B2GO’s are playful and remind me of the spirit of the summer sea and my stays at Martha’s Vineyard.”

Sondra Arkin makes her first appearance in Martha’s Vineyard . Arkin has widely shown her work in Washington, DC , Maryland, Virginia and Delaware. Her current series of wax and shellac paintings on dibond is an abstract presentation of various views of water including droplets, river rocks , and showers. She works in a rich palette of red-purples, grey-blues, oranges , and yellows. She achieves a luminous and meditative quality to her work by layering, arranging , and combining shapes and colors. In another context, Sondra Arkin stated, “...much of my work is about layers. My painting stems from a belief that our lives consist of overlapping moments that we work to organize-moments of reflections, sadness, disquiet, joy , and ultimately, I hope, of harmony. These are the layers that create a rich and valuable life”.

Roberta Gross , a resident of Aquinnah and Washington D.C., exhibits in the DC area and on the Vineyard and teaches abstract and mixed media courses at the Featherstone Center for the Arts. Her paintings reflect her continuing experiments with different kinds of paper and scrap materials. In four colorful works, she has organized rectangles of collage in an irregular grid-like fashion, which consist of stained glass-like acrylic papers, gold leaf, and pieces of her recycled art works and collograph prints. As Roberta describes, “using these papers as part of the art work reflects a mix of impulsiveness, a sense of joy and movement, chance effects, and controlled composition”. She is also exhibiting four large acrylic paintings on paper with bold shapes and sinewy lines which appear to reflect the earth’s organic formulation and reformulations.

Laura Roosevelt , a year round resident of West Tisbury, is someone many Islanders know as a poet, journalist, photographer ; and active community member. She is making her gallery debut with four abstract photographs. Laura says that both in her poetry and photography, she “…is interested in the discovery of beauty in the mundane.” In her recent photography, she has concentrated on reflections of ordinary objects in the water - boats, pilings, docks, buildings - and how these seemingly solid objects become distorted and transformed by the water’s movement. She aims for her photographs to appear painterly rather than more hard - edged. Color, pattern , and composition are the tools she uses to explore her philosophical question: “is a reflection - even one distorted beyond recognition - any less real than the thing reflected”?

Ellyn Weiss , a painter and printmaker, exhibits widely both in the DC area as well as on Cape Cod. For this exhibit, she is showing a series of monoprints and small tile-like encaustics which evoke ocean waves. The monoprints appear to be both based on cellular structures and on t he external worlds of sunsets, flowers, and early spring. Ellyn has been drawing inspiration from the biological world ever since she viewed an exhibit in Baltimore, MD of the work of two John Hopkins scientists who photographed images of magnified cells. She was moved by “the thought of this beauty twinned with the functionality inside each of us . ”. In creating her work, Ellyn focuses on a particular image or its parts and makes enhance ments to create compositions of layered imagery that reflect back to her original sources of inspiration.

We look forward to seeing you on Saturday, September 3 from 5 – 7 pm for the opening of Rhythms and Blues and throughout the show. Louisa Gould Gallery is located at 54 Main Street, Vineyard Haven and is open 11 am – 6 pm, Sunday – Thursday and 11 am – 8 pm, Friday and Saturday. For more information or directions, please call (508)693-7373 or visit our website at www.louisagould.com .