Colored landscapes and dancing lights
Bartlett's Farm holds first-ever art exhibit for the Arts Festival
BY PANOS KAKAVIATOS CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Bewildered by the sun's rays in Bartlett's Farm's new produce store, Nantucket artist Loretta Yoder saw infinite artistic possibilities for her work to be included in a first-ever art exhibit down on the farm for the Nantucket Arts Festival.

Valeri Arnold-Osley painting at Bartlett's Farm. PHOTO BY JILL SANDOLE

"It was about 1:30 in the afternoon, and the sun was streaming in from their high windows, shining on the fruits and vegetables, creating new forms through light and shade. As a shopper, it was a blinding experience, but as a painter, it was terrific," she told The Nantucket Independent in a phone interview while painting one of her three likely submissions.

"The other thing I love is that it combines natural form and architectural structures," she said of the farm's artistic setting. "You have overhead grids, greenhouse windows, tables and long aisles. All are hit by the sun in various ways and the light just plays and dances there - you ought to see it on the pumpkins. I walked into their greenhouse and they had pumpkins lined up on the tables and when the sunlight came, it was like a light dance."

BARTLETT'S TRUCK, 30" X 30" BY ILLYA KAGAN

Landscape painter Valeri Arnold-Osley is particularly pleased with "breathtaking yellow colors from flowers and squash rising from the green leaves" in a painting she will submit to the Farm & Fields Exhibit, to be held from September 28 to October 2. "The farm is an artist's dream as far as having so much to work with; you can use all the colors on your palate and more," she said.

Celebrated island artist Illya Kagan - who has been painting on Nantucket for 20 years - is submitting a colorful neo-Impressionist style painting of Bartlett's green farm truck on Main Street, with its fruits and vegetables on display. Fauve-like in its dramatic color - the Fauve movement of the early 20th century, led by Henri Matisse and André Derain, is known for its wildly vivid colors - the noontime scene conveys a summer haze coming partly from warm orange and red tones. Kagan painted the truck from under a tree on that hot summer day, and he agrees that the farm lends itself to color. "There is no question," Kagan told The Independent. "I like to push color as far as I can, but the farm and the truck with its vegetables will show lots of color, even if you paint realistically."

The 38-year old artist has often used the farm truck and farm scenes for his colorful work. "I got a call about the exhibition and they [the farm] were very kind in letting me use their subjects over the years, so I look forward to being a part of it," he said.

Other featured artists, whose inspiration is drawn from rustic rural themes like strawberry fields, flowers, potted plants, still life and farm equipment, include MJ Levy Dickson, Sharon Hussey, Victoria LeVine, Linda Zola, Julie Gifford, Gerry Scheide, Edward Tamm and Michael Moore. Their work will be displayed in the farm's upstairs 30x40 foot Hayloft room. According to Bartlett's events coordinator Jill Sandole, freshly cut flowers, pumpkins and other farm-related items will be decoratively arranged in the Hayloft with the art - lending an appropriate agricultural ambiance to the show.

The opening reception, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. on Friday, September 28, will not be a simple wine and cheese affair. "Our executive chef MJ [Mary Jane] Mojer will feature some of our in-season vegetables, such as our crudité platter, Sandole told The Independent. Bartlett's Farm pastry chef Joanna Polowy - former pastry chef at both 21 Federal and American Seasons - will also prepare creative desserts, some involving both a créme brulée and those famous Bartlett's Farm tomatoes (she did not want to reveal all), as well as pumpkin cheesecake. "It should be luscious; it is harvest time," Polowy said. "But we are not the artists; we are trying to complement the exhibit, like a side dish."

Part of the proceeds from any art sales at the exhibit - which is free to the public - will contribute to the Nantucket Art Council's Scholarship Fund, which supports graduating high school students who will study art

in college. I