Art We Love – Local Color

It’s that time of year when summer is tantalizingly close but a day at the beach is still a few chilly weeks away. In other words, the perfect time to hit the town and explore what’s on view in the galleries. It’s an embarrassment of riches as usual, and you can still amble around looking at art without fighting the crowds. The works here are all quite different in style, but they just seem to have Ptown in their DNA.

Chris Firger, Saturday on Commercial Street, acrylic on panel (16” x 20”) – Alden Gallery

A skilled editor can make a piece of prose sing. The same is true in painting. Chris Firger is a masterful editor and also a superb colorist. He’s distilled the landscape before us to its most essential elements and with a skillful blend of colors has perfectly captured the afternoon light. It’s definitely a case of less is more.

Kevin Kusiolek, Slow Ride, oil on board (11” x 14”) – Bowersock Gallery

It’s always a pleasure to come across an artist who renders the familiar in a new way. The golden, sunset light on the boats in Provincetown Harbor has been a siren call for artists for at least a century. But Kevin Kusiolek has given the subject a fresh take, using areas of exposed wood almost like patches of gold leaf to express the glinting sunlight. And his strong, restrained palate gives the painting an impact worthy of the scene itself.

Paul Rizzo, On the Cape, mixed media on panel (9” x 12”) – Four Eleven Gallery

Forget your prim, picture-postcard view of Provincetown – this piece is all about the kinetic, expressive energy that is the soul of the place. Like so many Ptown habitués, it’s loud and a little off balance, but boy is it having fun. You can almost feel a tornado about to touch down (or the weekend begin?), and that little bit of danger combined with a gorgeous rainbow bursting through the clouds and arching over us perfectly sums up a summer visit to Ptown.

Mark Adams, Cormorants on the Wind, Cape Cod Bay, watercolor, gouache on vintage maritime chart (47” x 38”) – Schoolhouse Gallery

Who hasn’t dreamt of flying – soaring and floating above the world without a care. Mark Adams’ lyrical, dynamic brushwork lets us hover with the cormorants over the rippling, swirling water below. The layering of the paint over the map of Provincetown further reinforces that sense of elevation. It’s the world from a new perspective, and a timely reminder of the fragility of this tiny spit of land and the enormity of the ocean around us.

Find more Art We Love & Why from the archives!