Story and Photography By Terry Pommett

Inspiration and Method

During this time when Nantucket Arts Council showcases the island’s arts through its 15th annual Nantucket Arts Festival, we asked nine local artists—each well known to regular patrons of Nantucket’s more than 100 art galleries—to share how they work and to tell us what inspires them.

Within this group, artistic styles range from formal portraiture to highly abstract imagery, created in many different media. Through the lenses of Nantucket photographer Terry Pommett, we offer a look inside the working studios where these artists create works that eventually make their way onto gallery walls here and elsewhere. The breadth and depth of their work, in our opinion, well represents the great variety of the serious artists and their work to be found on Nantucket today.



Gail Sharretts, Painter
I am largely inspired by landscapes I love to travel to new places to discover challenges [as an artist]… the Mediterranean blues in southern France, the melancholy of Ireland or all the beautiful colors of India. This direct experience with the landscape influences and informs all of my abstract painting.

Turning inward, an internal dialog can begin where intellect and emotion meet. My inspiration is not limited to the landscape, however. I will paint almost anything that catches my interest—vintage cameras, typewriters, fruit, flowers and the occasional portrait commission.

Some pieces will be finished within three to ten sessions; abstract paintings can sometimes take up to two years.

I often have to just revisit a painting over and over again to fully understand what it is trying to say to me. ... My first true love was sculpture. I work in clay and then cast in plaster, which then will be cast in bronze. I am experimenting with casting methods such as cement or self-hardening clays so that I can preserve the immediacy and movement in the clay, resulting in a more abstract and less figurative end product. Call 508-228- 9843 to visit her gallery or see her work at gailsharretts.com.

Sara Boyce, Gallery Owner
The true mark of a gifted portrait artist is their ability to capture and portray personality in a two-dimensional painting, mixed media work or a three-dimensional statue.

Does the glint in the eye come out; can you tell whether they are serious, lighthearted or passionate? There are special challenges in being a portrait artist.

Each artist works differently, some in the traditional manner from life, and some work with a combination of sittings and photographs. We act as a broker between the client and the artist, so the artist can focus on creating and the client can focus on the end result: the anticipated portrait. We work with the client to choose an artist who will create a portrait in the style and medium they like. We arrange the details all the way through to working with the client to select the appropriate frame for their new portrait. The real treasure in portraiture is that portraits last… and become an instant heirloom that usually follows the subject through their life and then lives on with a relative. Visit Brigham Galleries at 54 Centre Street or see brighamgalleries.com.

Alison Hall Cooley, Painter
I am a total two-timer. This year in particular, I have been working equally in mixed media on paper and oil on canvas. I always have multiple pieces in the works.I just paint, rotate, paint, let it breathe, paint, and then finally something comes to a close.

My non-representational work really began with large-scale landscape drawing as a student at Sarah Lawrence College. That naturally morphed into pen and ink with watercolor, then I just kept adding things like pastel, gesso, gouache and pencil.

I like the immediacy of building layers in mixed media and the ability to roll, tear, and move the paper. Oil painting is a goopier, glossier, slower process.I am most satisfied when I am completely absorbed in my work and I find a new mark, new shape, or new color—small things that point you to the next step. My methods require music, music and music. I paint sitting on the floor with my stuff all around me. I am very messy. My inspiration comes from nature that I see everyday: poetry, melodies, old buildings, worn-out surfaces, feathers, satin shoes, cake frosting ... the usual stuff. See her work at alisonhallcooley.com or at Old Spouter Gallery, 1881Orange Street.

Joanna Kane, Painter
Drawing became a serious habit during junior high and high school. It was my way of paying attention while not paying attention. I usually work with “Court TV” on, which I think duplicates to some extent the conditions in high school, where I was in a concentrated state of listening to someone talk while creating at the same time. Now it really doesn’t matter whether I am paying attention. I create a certain level of order in my studio that slowly gives way to chaos. My work is an arrangement of color, shape, line and texture, which hopefully all look like they are somewhat surprised to be next to each other. I primarily work with milk paint, which is a combination of natural pigment, lime and milk powder. It has to be hand mixed with water and then strained. My paintings can vary in work from three hours to 20 hours. Inspiration comes directly from the painting I am working on. The paintings and I are in a serious conversation and often a duel. We are trying to outdo the other. Hopefully, I can keep blowing my own mind and land somewhere new on a consistent basis. See her work at Old Spouter Gallery, 118 Orange Street.

Reggie Levine, Mixed Media
Before starting a painting, I usually will make a series of rough sketches in order to get some idea of how to proceed. Generally I rough out the composition, covering the entire surface with thin, watery pigment. I try to be as free as possible with no attempt at finish. The hope is to keep the original spontaneity and not lose that freshness and immediacy developing the painting. For the past five years or so, I have concentrated on collage, which involves mixed media. Last year I began a series of assemblages, which were featured at my solo exhibition at the Graficas gallery. These pieces were my first serious attempt at three dimensionality even though they are dependent and are an extension of my two-dimensional work. Inspiration is to be found almost anywhere at any time. In my case, other art is a major catalyst. Images to be found in magazines, newspapers or TV can start the process. My garden in particular and the island in general has inspired and given me the ingredients to develop and incorporate into my work. Music has taught me a great deal, particularly Bach, about structure and the richness of texture. See his work at Graficus Gallery, 1 Old South Wharf.

Michael Rich, Painter
At the Rhode Island School of Design in the late ‘80s we were taken to the museum to look at the drawing collection. Master drawings by Degas and Van Gogh were passed around the room, without glass or framing, almost like playing cards.

In awe, I began at that moment what has become a long exploration of the language of drawing and painting. Today, I have two bodies of work, which are in constant dialogue with one another. The first are the canvases, painted in oil and wax. The second consists of mixed-media "drawings" in a variety of water-based materials.

In both media, I begin first with drawing, making marks in an automatic fashion, without preconception or expectations. Colors are mixed in large puddles or bowls then splashed and poured in the early layers. From there, Ibegin a long process of adding color and marks, bits of drawing, scraping away or sanding—or in the case of the paper works—editing the initial layers by painting over the less satisfactory parts with gesso. The paintings that result are not abstract scenes but simply shapes and marks, which might suggest a landscape and a human connection to space and place. See his work at SouthWharf Gallery, 3 India Street, or visit michael-rich.com.

Pamela Pindell, Painter
I had a very unusual and terrific high school teacher who brought in people and sat them on a table, [then] we drew and painted watercolor from life.

I remember a middle aged man and an old woman in a head wrap in particular, and I got a good likeness with both. I guess that did it for me: the surprise and intrigue.

I am attracted to many kinds of people. I don't think I would be able to say why, except that I usually find them beautiful.

Everyone is difficult. I set something or someone up in my studio and just start painting. I used to draw first, but haven't done that for some time.

Sometimes I'll sit in my garden and paint for the brief time that the light comes from the same direction. The best subjects for me to paint were my daughters. I started painting them when they were 4 and 6 years old, bribing them, then gifting at the end of a picture. I have gotten so I can get a likeness in one or two sittings, and have many, many paintings of them. This past winter Ibegan painting my grandchildren. See her work at The Gallery at Four India Street or visit galleryatfourindia.com.

Christine Sanford, Painter
I started painting about seven years ago. I am mainly self-taught, but I have taken many painting, drawing and critique workshops and classes at the Artists, Association of Nantucket.

My commitment to trying to establish a painting language of my own has been exciting. I would describe my paintings as color meditations. Above all, I value my personal experience in the studio. I find inspiration from nature—flora and fauna, antique woven textiles and quilts and looking at other paintings.

Presently I am most interested in painting with oils on canvas or board. Occasionally I will paint with watercolor. I begin with an undercoat of acrylic paint,dividing the canvas into three general areas. Then I begin the long process of building up the surface with oil paint mixed with wax, various mediums and turpentine. I would describe my style as pentimento—the technique of layering color. I use lots of mark-making tools besides regular painting brushes. These days I have been using mini brooms for their stiff bristles and wide covering capabilities. Having them in my studio makes me laugh because at one time I started collecting brooms, never imaging that someday I would be painting with them! See her work at South WharfGallery, 3 India Street, or visit southwharfgallery.com.

Diane Dicker, Painter
I always loved painting and drawing but it didn’t occur to me that I could do this as a profession until I went to Australia 22 years ago on a year’s “working holiday.” There, I sold or bartered murals and paintings to fund my travels. Three years later, I was living in Paris, where I stayed for the next 10 years. For the first two years, I studied painting in a private ‘Atelier,’ learning 15th and 16th
century, ‘old master’ techniques in oil and fresco. I also studied morphology [anatomy] and sculpture. I work mainly in oil for my portraits, but also watercolor, fresco and dry-point etching, which I find is a great forum for pure drawing. Each brings a totally different quality to a subject. The realm of portraiture is inherently charged with the human condition. I think portraiture takes the painter to a level of intimacy with the client that most painters are either not interested in or don’t want to deal with. When you’re painting a portrait, that person becomes a part of your life for the duration of the painting, and sometimes beyond. This doesn’t appeal to everyone, but I like it. See her work at dianedicker.com or call her at 508-325-7098.