FEATURED ARTISTS

The Grenning Gallery is pleased to announce our latest exhibition, “Land, Sea, & Light” featuring brand new works from Viktor Butko, Terry Elkins, and Melissa Franklin Sanchez. From the beaches of Long Island’s East End and the harbors of coastal Maine to sunlit Italian gardens and intimate window views, the exhibition considers how land, water, and changing light shape our sense of place. The exhibition will open on Saturday October 17th, with a reception that evening from 5:00-7:00pm. While Melissa Franklin Sanchez is unable to attend, Viktor Butko and Terry Elkins will both be present at the opening reception. The public is warmly invited to attend. The exhibition will run through Sunday November 8th.

Melissa Franklin Sanchez (b.1984, Warwickshire, England) returns to Grenning Gallery with a shimmering new series of oil paintings that celebrate the beauty she observes daily at her home in Tuscany. The largest painting in her new series, “As the Stars Align,” captures an expansive view of the night sky, as clouds and stars revel overhead. Franklin Sanchez’s use of oil on brass grants the piece a spectacular luminosity that truly captures the experience of stargazing on a clear and quiet night.

Windows and doorways, a beloved subject of Franklin Sanchez’s, explore the connection between the internal and external. “The Music Room” presents a pleasant look at her two young children at ease, Raphael sits poised at the piano, backlit by the grandeur of the glowing outdoors behind him. Just beyond the ornate door, is her daughter Iris, relaxing in a rocking chair, gazing out at their verdant yard. “Spring Light” offers a similar subject, but with a subtle mysteriousness. The interior is barren, all furniture and signs of life indoors have melted away, aiming our focus on the set of open French doors. Maya, the artist's beloved dog soaks up some sun at the edge of the door.

“A World of Possibilities” presents an interior view of the artist’s home, backlit by a large double window revealing a picturesque day. Inside, a young girl, the artist’s daughter, stands at a table re-potting seedlings in preparation for the next growing season. Several cut flowers sit in vases before her, while various potted sprigs on the windowsill bask in the afternoon light. Franklin Sanchez states:

"My studio is a place , usually quiet and warm, where ideas  grow.  In the early spring the windowsill becomes a nursery for my plants and seeds where energy and life awaken. All seeds when nurtured have beautiful life within, full of possibilities,  as my children grow this thought is ever present. "

In “Stargazer,” the artist’s daughter stands at the window, looking out at the night sky. The bright lights of distant houses dot the landscape in tandem with the stars above. Beneath the windowsill, the dark interior of the home is speckled with its own spots of light, bringing elements of the exterior world into the interior experience.

Franklin Sanchez’s new works also include several floral landscapes, such as “Amongst the Wildflowers,” “My Rose Garden,” and “Spring in the Allotment.” Smaller works, including “Peonies in May,” “My Hydrangeas,” “Wildflowers in May,” and “Daffodils,” turn to individual blooms through the spring, each rendered in oil on copper, whose metallic surface lends the flowers a quiet glow.

Viktor Butko (b. 1978, Moscow, Russia) returns to Grenning Gallery for his 10th year, with another brilliant series of landscapes.

“Watching the Sunset” captures an idyllic snapshot of a coastal home at the end of the day, just before the sun begins to retreat under the horizon. The pale pink rays cast a creamy glow over the quiet harbor as a lone boat passes through. The Cape Cod–style cottage features a large wooden deck upon which two figures observe the majestic setting sun. Lupine blooms adorn the steep grassy foreground while a single evergreen stands tall on the far right.

“Sailing By” also celebrates the beauty of coastal Maine, overlooking a small town facing the water. Two massive sailboats traverse the harbor while smaller motorboats and dinghies pass underneath. Small islands dot the background, replete with evergreen trees, while grey clouds half-cover the pale blue sky. Butko’s depiction of the sky offers insight into his painterly technique…negative space outlines each cloud, accentuating a subtle light permeating through an overcast sky.

“Summer Meadow” is a stylistic departure from Butko’s previous work, taking a distinctly pointillist approach in rendering a thriving meadow in front of a white colonial home. The large white house is not the focal point, bt simply a distant presence in the composition. The main character in this painting is the eponymous meadow. The verdant foreground extends through 4/5ths of the canvas.  White puffs of dandelion blooms almost appear to sway amongst the blades of grass and wildflowers rendered in choppy strokes. This allover motif recalls the elaborately decorated landscapes of Gustav Klimt.

“Roses and Irises” brings the garden to the table, where white roses and purple irises spill from a pitcher and a cobalt glass vase across a summer-green checkered tablecloth. Situated outdoors, with a sunlit lawn and calm water beyond. The subject takes solace beneath the canopy of a tree, its low hanging leaves adorning the uppermost part of the composition. Sunlight persists through the leaves and glistens in dappled dots across the table.

As the only local resident to the East End in this exhibition, Terry Elkins (b. 1951, Vicksburg, Mississippi) delivers views of his favorite spots. A monumental 10-foot-wide panorama of turquoise waves curling towards shore. A gradient sky shifts from grey to pink above the horizon. Rows of white capped waves stretch across the canvas, but the most mesmerizing aspect of this composition is the shallow water gliding back and forth from the sand. Layers creep across the sand like translucent blankets. This large-scale composition allows the viewer to lose themselves entirely in the grandeur of the un-encumbered sea.

“Wainscott Pond” offers a warmer atmosphere. A pale rose sky meets a lavender shelf of clouds atop the horizon. A defined line of green trees surrounds a thin band of water, while dry golden grasses fill the foreground in soft, hushed tones. A tenderly depicted plot of untouched and, (we are thrilled to report) newly preserved, land in East Hampton.

 A group of paintings returns to a single view of railroad tracks receding between tall, shadowed trees toward a glowing pink sky. The single-track railway that extends to Montauk has been operating for over a century, and although rarely considered by visitors, persists today. And is omnipresent in the daily life of Elkins, who’s studio sits adjacent to them.

The Grenning Gallery is pleased to announce our latest exhibition, Summer’s End; featuring brand new works from Carl Bretzke, Rolf Hellem, and Doug Reina. The exhibition will open on Saturday September 19th, with a reception that evening from 6:00-7:30pm. We invite the public to join us for the opening reception, or to come view the exhibit while it’s on view through October 12th.

As summer comes to an end, and beachgoers reluctantly return to the bustling city, we have pondered what the presence (or lack) of humans does to our perception of an image. Are we the subjects of the portrait or merely another visual feature akin to wildflowers along the roadway? The three artists spotlighted in this show all take unique approaches to their depictions of humanity. Carl Bretzke uses human figures as artistic punctuation, which hint to a larger narrative but leave room for interpretation from the viewer. Doug Reina, often forgoes the presence of people entirely, instead immortalizing the architecture and objects they leave behind. Finally, Rolf Hellem makes human figures the center of his canvas, with character driven compositions that highlight the individual experience. Together, these painters inspire viewers to think deeply about the role representational artwork plays in shaping our understanding of the living world.

Carl Bretzke (b. 1954, Minnesota)

Bretzke’s “Main Street Nocturne” (the banner image for this exhibition) captures a view of Sag Harbor’s Main Street in the early evening, just as the last vestiges of sunlight are fading from the sky. The warm glow of the halogens and streetlights transform a mundane scenario into an otherworldly experience. Human figures appear as backlit shadows, lending anonymous dimension and movement to the canvas. The painting leaves the viewer questioning the exact nature of the moment captured. Is the individual in the middle of the crosswalk merely mid-stride, or are they too frozen in the light of the coming car’s high beams? Is the couple standing in front of Sag Pizza embracing or merely huddling from the wind? Finally, why is the Jeep on the far left illegally parked when there are multiple parking spots clearly available? All these questions contribute to the atmosphere of the painting, evoking feelings of comfort, nostalgia, and intrigue.

In “Waiting for Your Sister” Bretzke’s mastery of composition is on full display. The diagonal swoop of the shoreline encircled by a verdant cove encourages the eye to traverse the canvas in an upward spiraling motion. The colors of the sky are reflected in the mirror finish of the wet sand, the boyish figure in a field of light blue, while the girl is shrouded in the grey shadows of a passing cloud. Here, Bretzke uses human figures as participants in a narrative rather than the focus, the expanse between the two children is ultimately the subject of the painting, one that feels both insurmountable and easily traversed. Bretzke uses the same visual technique in “Last Light Swim”, where the three swimmers are anonymous shadows breaking up the natural beauty of the ocean and sky. The dwindling rays of the setting sun suffuse the cool toned canvas with warm layers of apricot and saffron.

Doug Reina (b. 1959, Long Island)

Where other artists might feel pressure to present an easily digestible narrative within their work, Doug Reina challenges the viewer to unearth their own meaning from his subjects. “Opened for the Season” shows a rear view of single-story green beach house, its white Bahama shutters propped open in anticipation of the summer heat. An exterior door leads down wooden steps into a sea of golden dune grass with no path in sight. To the right of the house, a small patch of white sand is visible with the ocean rising behind. To the left, a light blue A-frame stands on wooden stilts, its windows dark. No footprints, cars, or even pathways mar the landscape of this canvas. The only evidence of human presence are the open shutters and door of the house itself. The exact location of the painting is similarly obscured, the clear blue sky, sand, and seagrass could indicate any number of beachfront properties along the Atlantic coastline. The viewer is left to interpret the scene through the lens of their own experience.

This approach is also extant in “Shack, Left Side View” although here the visible weathering of the channel siding and grey shutters evokes a sense of aging nostalgia. The boarded windows and raised foundation all give the impression of a house standing sentry, awaiting its next season of inhabitants.

Rolf Hellem (b.1998, Norway)

Rolf Hellem’s “Farewell” is a deeply autobiographical painting inspired by the passing of his maternal grandfather. A woman stands atop a cliff, holding the hand of a male child. Another boy crawls over a small outcropping of rocks further back. Far beneath them, a narrow river passes through rocky bluffs leading out towards a Longship facing the sea. Within Norse mythology, these ships signify safe passage into the afterlife. Sunlight splits the clouds in three directions, highlighting the distance between the living and the dead.

“Reflections” has a similarly romantic atmosphere. A blonde woman leans over the edge of a dock, staring into the water below. Her white dress lends the image a sense of timelessness, its style having remained in contemporary fashions for at least half a century. The blue background of the canvas is also left partially unfinished as if referencing the natural haze of human memory.

Lastly, “The Long Row” focuses on a beleaguered fisherman adrift the sea. Full nets of silver fish, highlighted by the dawning sun, reveal this to be the end of a hard day’s work. He holds his oars suspended in the air as he contemplates the remainder of his journey home. Despite the man’s justified exhaustion, he is painfully aware that before he can truly rest, he must complete his long row back to shore.

The Grenning Gallery is pleased to announce our 19th Annual Ben Fenske Solo Exhibition, opening Thursday August 20th, at 26 Main Street, Sag Harbor, NY, 11963. Please join us for the Opening Reception Thursday evening, from 6:00 – 7:30pm; the artist will be in attendance.  The exhibition will hang through Sunday September 13th.

“Cooks Lane”, the banner image for this exhibition, showcases the rural landscape of northern Bridgehampton, where fields of farmlands are prepped for sowing and harvest. A single white pickup truck drives along the road towards the viewer, beneath a sky adorned with puffy clouds. A nod towards the humble beauty that attracts so many to our region.

Ben Fenske typically spends several months each year here on the East End, painting our local landscapes on site, en plein air. This year, however, he welcomed his first child, and his new fatherly duties kept him close to home in Tuscany, where he painted this entire new body of work from memory. What resulted is a series of vividly colored paintings built from expressive, divisionist brushstrokes. It is a natural next step for an artist of Fenske’s caliber — after nineteen years spent painting our Sag Harbor landscape from life, he can now paint it from 4,000 miles away.

One of Fenske’s favorite spots to paint Out East is Dering Harbor on Shelter Island. “Dering Herreshoff” shows the moment a sailboat catches a puff of wind. The portrait style dimensions allow for a greater expanse of both the sky and the sea, showing the shifting colors of the water’s surface, especially towards the shallower water in the foreground. A single sailor crosses center frame, heading out to deeper waters as clouds gather overhead. The tall sails reflect onto the water below them, accentuating the verticality of the painting.

“Shelter Island Yacht Club” takes a wider view of the Dering Harbor coastline at early morning. The sea is still, and every boat is resting at its mooring. The clubhouse for the yacht club, a small wood shingled structure with a low white-trim gable, sits unassumingly amongst the horizon line. Short, sweeping brushstrokes vibrate with energy, and appear to burst out from the center of the painting.

“Wave” takes the viewer to the Ocean, where the horizon line forms only where the vast sea meets the sky above. Fenske preserves a moment, as the cresting waves crash onto umber sand. Fenske’s distinct painting style layers staccato brush strokes in various colors to capture the ever-shifting colors in natural light. His skies and seas are never just blue, they capture a spectrum of hues including, green, lavender, pink, and yellow.

One of the largest paintings in the show, “Montauk” takes a panoramic view of a crowded harbor. Various fishing boats are docked around the small peninsula of land while a large flock of seagulls gather overhead.

 “Newborn” is a beautiful reflection of Ben Fenske’s recent fatherhood. It shows his long-time partner, Amy, carrying their newborn son across the Tuscan landscape they reside upon. The mostly bare deciduous tree reveals the subject was painted several months prior, in late winter or early spring. Still, the bright colors highlighted throughout the canvas transform a partially barren landscape into a celebration of new beginnings. Perhaps a reflection of the painter’s own joy over his growing family.

Together, these paintings trace a season unlike any other in Fenske's career — familiar shores rendered from thousands of miles away, filtered through memory and the first months of fatherhood. The result is some of the most vivid, emotionally charged work of his nineteen years at Grenning Gallery.