As the darkness descends upon us earlier each day, Alexis Russillo’s paintings are gifts of the unique light, texture, and beauty of the Island. Her show, “Bringing the Outside In,” the inaugural Little House Café’s Sunday pop-up gallery exhibition, offers gems to savor. The cafe will highlight a different artist each month.
“I begin the artistic process as a spectator, whether I am surfing or going for a walk,” Russillo explains. “I will become particularly drawn to the aesthetics of nature, and the clear and precise light of the Island environment. This light simply fascinates me with its transparency and depth that fills me with the need to recreate it.”
Russillo’s fluid brushwork creates moments in time. In “Lambert’s Cove,” it is as though we have just climbed the high dune overlooking the beach that comes at the end of the trail leading from the parking lot. The striking diagonal ridges of white clouds searing through the azure sky emphasize the sweep of the shoreline and the feel of this always invigorating view.
“Winter Green Way” depicts a lone boat in a field near Middle Road. Russillo was called to capture its character as it sits perched, seemingly looking straight at us. While she portrays the vessel in fairly tight brushwork, her more impressionistic strokes in neutral hues describing the landscape evoke the essence of a cold winter day.
In quiet tones as well is “Cedar Tree Neck,” which describes the breathtaking vista right when you reach the beach. While Russillo creates some works in her studio, this painting was on an excursion in the landscape itself. She recalls, “This one is very expressionistic, which is just me quickly sketching a moment that I found moved me.”
“Spring Falls” has a totally different, very dramatic roiling sunrise skyscape. This work derived from a friend’s request to express her experience of a vista in Aquinnah that is off East Pasture Road, looking out toward the silhouetted Elizabeth Islands. Her bold composition is a joyous interpretation of the power of nature’s light.
Russillo is particularly enamored with “Blue Tractor” because of the machinery in a large field that she saw off the road to Great Rock Bight. “I said to my friend on our nature walk, Can you believe this, this picturesque, sunny day, and we see this beautiful tractor shining in the light?” the artist describes. Russillo is able, with multiple shades of green, to create an alluring landscape that has the feel of the day, not just what it looked like.
The seascape “Full Moon Rising” is breathtaking, and captures the essence of nature’s power through her evocation of the light at this time of day. The image is of Russillo’s favorite place to surf, Squibnocket Beach. She says, “I painted this one after a really awesome surfing session.” You can feel the residual energy of her experience in the breaking waves and thrust of the sunset clouds that fill the upper portion of the work.
“They are my homage and big thank-you to be able to have these moments. My gratitude for nature is the interpretation through my canvas,” Russillo says. Throughout, she strives to recreate the moment here where light and beauty are one.
Visit “Bringing the Outside In” at the Little House Gallery on Sundays in December from noon to 4 pm. Visitors should park at Little House Café, 339 State Road, Vineyard Haven, and enter through the front door, which faces State Road. One group at a time will be permitted in the gallery, with a maximum of five people per group.
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December 10, 2020 at 02:57AM
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Art at Little House Café - Martha's Vineyard Times
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