Art We Love & Why: Variety

Art We Love & Why: Variety

With so many art galleries in Provincetown, there’s always something on view for every taste and every wallet. So this week I’m celebrating variety and highlighting pieces in a different media and styles. And of course this is just a nano-sample of the incredible array of work you’ll find around town.

Natalie Featherston, Bad Taste (oil on panel, 13” x 12”), Bowersock Gallery

I saw this painting in a window and it was love at first sight. It’s witty, brilliantly executed, and of course features one of Provincetown’s favorite sons, the Pope of Trash himself, John Waters. Natalie Featherston is an incredibly talented painter and at a young age is already a master of tromp l’oeil. But she also brings intelligence and humor to her work, a combination making an artist who will someday have us all saying “I knew her back when.…”

Steve Kennedy, Evening Docks (oil on linen, 16” x 20”), Kiley Court Gallery

With the arrival of the first warm days, this painting perfectly sums up the current mood. Boats gently bobbing in the harbor, bathed in the golden light of early evening – it’s the kind of snapshot we have in our heads when we think of summer. Steve Kennedy makes it look effortless, applying lush strokes of paint that perfectly capture the reflection of the boats on the gleaming surface of the water. He’s captured a moment we’ll all want to keep in our heads.

Ryan McMenamy, The Pass (mixed media on panel, 36” x 24”), Ray Wiggs Gallery

Elegant and packing a graphic punch, Ryan McMenamy’s work has a distinctive voice. I love the contrast of the delicately rendered face with the bold blocks of color created by the shirt and sofa. This artist has a brilliant sense of restraint. It’s clear that he could detail every aspect of the figure and the setting with great skill, but he’s held back. By leaving great swaths of negative space patterned only with the subtle grain of the raw wood, he’s created a depth and dynamism that are mesmerizing.

George Rogers is an artist and ceramicist. After a career in museums including the MFA in Boston and the Smithsonian, he and his husband moved to Provincetown full time four years ago.