Tag Archives: Old Schoolhouse Art Gallery

Old Schoolhouse Art Gallery: Seeking Submissions to its 2026 Annual Member’s Show

The Old Schoolhouse Art Gallery is asking for submissions to its 2026 Annual Member’s Show. Artists may bring up to two pieces. To participate, you must be a member, which costs just $10 a year. The cut-off date for submissions is May 14, and the exhibition will run from May 29 to June 14, 2026.

 ”We would like to make it so nobody feels like, ‘I don’t know if I’m good enough to hang in the gallery.’ If you are picking up paint or clay, that already is a good step. Your next step is to show it. That’s important and that’s why I’ve been volunteering and that’s why we are all volunteering because it is our passion,” explained Meinsje Vlaming, one of the Directors.

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At the Old Schoolhouse Art Gallery: Kristen Scofield-Sweet’s final large-scale exhibition

From August 29 to September 14, the Old Schoolhouse Art Gallery will host ‘How Do You Like the Underworld?—Kristen Scofield-Sweet’s final large-scale exhibition.

 “This is my retirement party swan song on the wall,” she began. “This is a body of work that’s complete. One of the remarkable things about that is the artist doesn’t usually get to see their work all hung together, obviously, unless they have a show. You’re used to seeing a piece over the couch with the pillows or the throw at the back. To actually see them having a conversation with each other is really special.”

“Every picture tells a story, so you can get all tangled up with how it got painted and why, how I work and yada, yada. In an exhibition like this, the work gets to speak for itself, and that’s really profound.”

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A Second Look at Cortes Island Root Drawings, by John Mottishaw at the Old Schoolhouse Art Gallery

These are my favorite first impressions when looking at art.

Ah…hum…huh…mmm…..ah……what? … Hum…ah!

Art that makes me question the very definition of art deserves first impressions from my senses rather than from verbal explanations. And yet questions also rush forward. Who decides what is art: the artist, the setting, the viewer? If I trip over roots on a forest path, are they just part of a tree? If I find roots in a gallery, do they become an art material?

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Ways to Walk Paths of Beauty

The final exhibition of the 2024 season at the Old Schoolhouse Gallery invites us to Paths of Beauty.  These works by six artists: Lisa Gibbons, Karen McDiarmid, Donna Naven, Jane Newman, Amy Robertson and Brigid Weiler invited me to think about “what is beauty in art?”

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Deep Breath: the work of Andrea Padovini

Deep Breath, the exhibition of work by Andrea Padovani currently being shown at the Old Schoolhouse Art Gallery, is a lesson in inspiration.  The word is from the Latin—inspirare—meaning to breathe in or blow into.  In art, inspiration is a power that cannot be commanded, but when present, moves the intellect and emotions with a sudden sense of awe.  In considering how to look at Andrea’s work, I discovered that the titles of his paintings were a guided tour into the indicators of inspiration. 

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