Provincetown galleries Archives

ARTmonday: Nude Drawings at PAAM

The other night I went to a reading by Taylor Larsen from her book Stranger, Father, Beloved at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum (PAAM). I haven’t read the book yet, but from what I’ve heard, Larsen has created complex and compelling characters.

One of the advantages of attending evening programs is the chance to wander through an empty gallery or two. In addition to David Hilliard’s large format photos, I saw “Drawings from the Permanent Collection,” on view through August 28, 2016.

Curated by Christine McCarthy, the Executive Director of the Museum, the show pulls from PAAM’s 3,000 plus works by over 750 twentieth century and contemporary artists who have worked in Provincetown and on Cape Cod. Most of them are nude drawings.

We know how I love nude artworks. The fluid lines of the female form are so alluring. So much of the woman’s essence is captured from the seemingly simple swoosh of a line defining her back, her shoulder, the swell of her breast, the roundness of her bottom Or, in the case of de Groot’s pieces, with its sharper lines, her modern strength.

Here are six nude drawings from the permanent collection of PAAM. If you’re in Ptown be sure to stop in.

Nude Drawing by Fritz Bultman In Provincetown

Fritz Bultman (1919-1985)
Tacke, 1968
Graphite on paper

Detail of Nude Woman Reclining At PAAM

Fritz Bultman, Tacke (detail)

Nude Drawing By Tony Vevers In Provincetown

Tony Vevers (1926-2008)
untitled (nude, back), 1963
Mixed media on paper

Nude Drawing By Irving Marantz In Provincetown

Irving Marantz (1912-1972)
Study of a Bather, n.d.
Charcoal on paper

Nude Drawing By Nanno de Groot In Provincetown

Nanno de Groot (1913-1963)
untitled (female nude 2/29/1956), 1956
Graphite on paper

Nude Drawing By Nanno de Groot In Provincetown

Nanno de Groot (1913-1963)
untitled (female nude 3/3/1956), 1956
Graphite on paper

Drawings From The Permanent Collection At PAAM

Installation at PAAM

ARTmonday: Geometric Abstract Paintings By Boston Artist John Guthrie at Room68

MassArt graduate John Guthrie, who previously studied aerospace engineering, has a fantastic show mounted at Room68 in Provincetown, a contemporary design shop cum gallery on Commercial Street. I stopped in last week and was wowed. I never made it to owner Brent Refsland’s original space in Jamaica Plain, though I feature pieces from the shop in my roundups for the Boston Globe all the time.

Refsland has a great eye and appreciation for contemporary design that doesn’t sacrifice useability. His shop could just as easily be at the ICA or MoMA (without the incessant branding), with furniture, accessories, and jewelry by designers who include Tina Fey, Black+Blum, and De La Espada, as well as local stars Debra Folz and Nervous System. He plans to stay put in Ptown for a while, after having transformed a tired women’s clothing retail store into an airy gallery space with white walls, track lighting, and pale wood floors last year.

An exhibition of Boston-based painter John Guthrie’s geometric abstract paintings is currently hanging. (According to Guthrie’s resume, in 2009 I wrote something in the Globe that included an image of his work—I’m guessing it was a decor story about a home with one of his paintings—but I can’t find it in my archives.) Guthrie’s work is crisp and delicious. The precise geometric forms in clear colors and perfectly shaded partner tones pop off the earthy tree trunk backgrounds, a sublime blend of mathematics and the natural world.

The geometric abstract paintings on tree trunk slices are available for sale at Room68; the canvases are also available online; prints on Etsy.

john-guthrie-room-68

john-guthrie-portrait-room-68

john-guthrie-room-68-overview
room-68-desk

room-68-exterior-ptown

Photography by Marni Elyse Katz for StyleCarrot
Portrait of Guthrie in the gallery by Brent Refsland for Room68.

ARTmonday: Judyth Honeycutt Katz at Berta Walker Gallery

Friday night we went to the opening of a group show at the Berta Walker Gallery in Provincetown. My mother-in-law, Judyth Honeycutt Katz, had 11 pieces hanging in the show. Like last year, they hung alongside some of the best artists in Provincetown— Robert Henry, Salvatore Del Deo and Romolo Del Deo. Berta Walker represents some of the best known artists on the Outer Cape, including Paul Resika, Selina Trieff, and Elspeth Halvorsen, Penelope Jencks, Sky Power, and Varujan Boghosian. She always has a few treasures by Hans Hoffman too. The exhibition runs through August 11, so stop by if you’re in Provincetown. This is Judy’s second show; I blogged about the Berta Walker opening last year here.

Hill Magic, Truro

Little Sur

Morning Fog, Truro

West Beach, Prout’s Neck

Big Surr II

Clouds with Fog II

Cloud Dance, Pilgrim Lake

Racing Thunder Cloud

Berta Walker Gallery, Provincetown

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Judy has masses of amazing work. I should dig through her studio. I spent the last week sleeping in the same building, but alas I was too busy being on vacation. Here are a few photos I took last year, of her pieces that hang in my apartment and her own house.

This large wild landscape hangs in my living room in Boston.

Judy just gave this one to my husband to hang at the office.

This is my in-law’s living room on the Cape.
I think all three paintings are from a trip to the Southwest.
Better shots of each below.

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The next two are hanging in their house in Connecticut.
I think they were done during an excursion to Alaska.

ARTmonday: Group Show at Berta Walker

Friday night we went to the opening of a group show at the Berta Walker Gallery in Provincetown.Berta represents some of the best artists in Provincetown, including Paul Resika, Robert Henry, Selina Trieff, Elspeth Halvorsen, and Romolo del Deo. I am excited and proud to say that my mother-in-law, Judyth Honeycutt Katz, had six pieces in the show. Five gorgeously colored pastels of the Truro landscape hung in a group on a wall in the middle gallery, in prominent view. Another was up by the front desk. Two sold on opening night; I’d best hang on to mine! Here is a sampling of some of the pieces I liked best in the show, plus a peek at works in Berta’s office.

Oliver Chaffee

Salvatore Del Deo

Left: Salvatore Del Deo

Left: Robert Henry | Right: Romolo Del Deo

Romolo Del Deo

Far left: Paul Resika

Paul Resika

Judyth Honeycutt Katz

Left: Robert Henry | Center: Selena Trieff | Right: Judyth Honeycutt Katz

Penelope Jencks

Far left: Selina Trieff | Center top: William Fitts

Sky Power

Erna Patroll

Left: Herman Maril | Center: Romolo Del Deo | Right: Blanche Lazell

Romolo Del Deo

on a shelf in Berta’s office

Center left: Erna Partoll | Center right: Elspeth Halvorsen

Left: Salvatore Fiumara

Romolo Del Deo

Agnes Weinrich

Blanche Lazell

sculptures in Berta’s office

Berta Walker

ARTmonday: PAAM Members Auction

Every year the Provincetown Art Association and Museum holds a silent auction of member works created on 12×12 boards. The work is exhibited for about six weeks, during which time the bidding is on. The bids start at $125 and increase by $25 increments. This means you can get some good deals on local artwork. Well known artists’ works go for quite a bit, but I was once the lone bidder on a piece I really love. The artists agree to donate 50% of the purchase price to PAAM, though many donate 100% of the proceeds.

We put in our initial bids over the weekend. We are especially interested in the middle piece in the bottom row. My mother-in-law painted it, based on a photo I took last summer of my sons and their cousin on the beach. So if you’re in Ptown, stop by and bid, but not on that one! Here is a sampling; sorry the photos aren’t great.

PAAM Members’ 12 x 12 Silent Auction
July 24, 8 PM to September 12, 4PM

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