WESTERLY — Members of the Artists’ Cooperative Gallery of Westerly will do something that has become a welcome tradition during the month of September — highlight peace.
For the sixth year, the gallery is working with the Westerly Chapter of the International Cities of Peace for the show, “Making Peace,” when artist members — encouraged to create pieces in keeping with the theme — will share their works.
“As the first hints of autumn bring a welcome relief from the heat of summer, it has become a tradition for members of the Artists’ Cooperative Gallery of Westerly to curate an exhibit that brings to light the important responsibility all have to promote peace in life, community and the greater world,” said Madeline Beaudry, the artist member in charge of publicity for the show.
In an email, Beaudry said members of the public will be invited to vote for their favorite works of art throughout the month when they visit the exhibit in the West Wing Gallery.
Painter Helen Roy and photographer Edward Oslund will be the September featured artists, Beaudry added.
Roy, she said, is a Westerly resident and self-taught artist who “considers herself lucky to have fallen in love with painting” after 30 years as a learning specialist.
Roy’s goal as an artist is to move the viewer emotionally, Beaudry said, quoting Roy, who said, “When you take a painting into your home or personal space, you are bringing the energy you, as an individual, receive from the work.”
“The artist’s palette is filled with soothing hues of blues, greens, yellows, corals, pinks and lavenders, all drawn from her calming interactions with nature as in sunsets or days by the ocean,” Beaudry added.
Roy works in a variety of mediums such as oil, acrylic, and oil and cold wax, and her styles can range from “geometrics to abstract seascapes to non-representational compositions,” Beaudry said.
In keeping with the theme of the September show, Roy created peace sign mobiles out of wood, metal and various other materials, Beaudry said. “The abstract and representational mobiles are designed to move, freely balanced, in indoor and outdoor environments.”
Oslund began his photographic journey at an early age with an Instamatic camera, Beaudry shared.
By the time he was 16 he had his own darkroom and by 18 he began experimenting with abstract images, she said.
“A man ahead of his time, his efforts to produce abstractions with the available technology frustrated him and he abandoned photography until years later when science caught up with his artistic vision,” she continued, noting that “Digital photography opened an entirely new world” for him
“Learning new techniques of image manipulation, he began to realize the vision he had entertained many years before,” she said.
“I have been fascinated with how nature creates beauty by fractal processes,” Oslund said. “I view myself not so much as a photographer, but as an abstract artist whose chosen medium is digital photography.”
Through the United in Arts Community Gallery, the gallery continues its mission to support and nurture the visual arts in the community by exhibiting the work of different groups in the greater Westerly/Pawcatuck area, Beaudry said, thus, the work of artists from the Thursday Painting Class at Pawcatuck Neighborhood Center will be on display in September.
There has been a group gathering together at the center with various artists and instructors for more than 20 years, Beaudry said. Every Thursday from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., artists of all levels are invited to the open studio at the center, she said, which is taught under the guidance of Roy and Paul Flanagan. During the sessions, artists of all ages can explore their favorite mediums in a supportive and encouraging atmosphere. The paintings created by the artists for the September exhibit will include works done in oil, acrylic, watercolor, pastel, cold wax and oil and colored pencils.
The Artists’ Cooperative Gallery of Westerly will hold an opening reception on Friday, Sept. 6, when guests are invited to meet the artists and enjoy food and refreshments, Beaudry said.
