New trio at South Wharf
BY MARY LANCASTER INDEPENDENT WRITER
The summer season is in its early stages, but art galleries around town are already beginning to showcase their talent. On May 23, the South Wharf Gallery at 3 India St. will host an opening reception from 6 to 8 p.m. for three emerging artists: Randy Hudson, Julija Mostykanova and Julie Gifford, each working with an eye to different subjects.

Three artists in the "Emerging Artists" show are, from left, Randy Hudson, Julija Mostykanova and Julie Gifford.

South Wharf Gallery owner Mary Beth Splaine said spotlighting new artists is not new for her or for the Artists' Association of Nantucket, but her gallery invites the public to talk with her artists

after their openings, in this case with all three present at 11 a.m. on Saturday, May 24. She describes the discussions as fun and educational and hopes to have an interested audience which might include others who are potential emerging artists and who can gain encouragement from listening to the stories of these three who will be exhibiting.

Randy Hudson, owner of Cisco Brewers, is more than a beer maker. Born in 1964 in Durham, N.C. and encouraged by his father to "Think! Use your head," Hudson studied landscape architecture at North Carolina State University but spent time in studies of sculpture and painting. Splaine describes his work, primarily landscapes, as possessing courage and a bold and vibrant sense using broad brush strokes.

"There is no timidity in him," she said.

Julija Mostykanova, born in Lithuania in 1980, came to the U.S. in 2001 and soon moved to Nantucket where she enrolled in classes with the Artists Association and developed a style using intense and deep oil colors to depict still life. Splaine describes her work as "Almost Renaissance in style; like a modern version of an old master, dark and rich but contemporary at the same time. She is interested in the space around her chosen objects."

Julie Gifford's love of Nantucket shows in her tranquil island scenes that sometimes possess humor when she interprets birds, a quality Splaine describes as almost childlike and playful. Gifford, 54, began her artistic studies in Mexico, moved on to study in Detroit and earned an arts degree from Ohio's Denison University. A student at the Artists Association, Gifford finds the island an inspiration for her environmentally focused art.

"They are inspired by the sea, they live on Nantucket and they express Nantucket," Splaine said of the importance of supporting new local artists. "As Nantucket has become more upscale and its rents have become higher and galleries no longer take risks introducing new artists, the new artists have a lot of the spirit of Nantucket in them, and it is important that they be seen. I am in cooperation with the Artists' Association of Nantucket

to support emerging artists." I