Have you ever found that you couldn't resist smiling at the sight of a funny little animal? Similar experiences have inspired the work of three prominent Rhode Island artists, Judi Israel, Brenda Wrigley-Scott and David Witbeck, featured in DeBlois Gallery's November 2009 show entitled "Creatures". 

Judi Israel, a ceramics artist from Barrington, will exhibit a series of "aquatic critters". As the artist relates, "My work reflects my love of nature and my constant search for humor in the world around me. I look for whimsy and silliness everywhere and hope my art will make people smile." Tiverton painter Brenda Wrigley-Scott has found inspiration in the animals that thrive in her rural surroundings. As she explains, "The wonderful variety of animals - Farm and Companion - are my subjects. Capturing something special in them is my challenge." Oil paintings by Pawtucket artist David Witbeck complete the show. In characterizing his work, the artist says he strives to keep his paintings "more iconic" while he "plays with color, shape and composition without worrying about the details".  Witbeck goes on to say  " I'm most pleased when people smile at my work. I take my art seriously, but my serious intent is to create something that's well-designed and fun to look at".

Judi Israel

Artist's Statement

My work reflects my love of nature and my constant search for humor in the world around me.  I look for whimsy and silliness everywhere and hope my art will make people smile. 

While on this quest in October of 2007, I received a copy of Smithsonian Magazine.  There, on the cover, was a dumbo octopus.  Because I knew I had found something wonderful, I saved the issue.  Sometime later, I found a book of photographs by David Doubilet called FishFace. That was all I needed (you can’t make up faces like that). 

That was the inspiration for this series of aquatic “critters.”  Some are very real and some…not so much.  You decide and I hope you smile too.

Judi Israel

Spotted Hawk Fish

Judi Israel

Ceramic Sculpture

Angel Fish

Judi Israel

Ceramic Sculpture

Brenda Wrigley Scott

Artist's Statement

I have been working in the Ceramic Arts for more than 25 years, concentrating on surface decoration. I am now returning to painting as an expression of the pleasure derived from my new rural surroundings. The wonderful variety of animals-Farm and Companion- are my subjects. Capturing something special in them is my challenge. Artist Statement-

Brenda Wrigley Scott

October 2009.

The Pointers

Brenda Wrigley Scott

Acrylic Painting

Rooster, Tail Feather

Brenda Wrigley Scott

Acrylic Painting

David Witbeck

Artist's Statement

 I’ve never been a fisherman, but have always been fascinated by commercial fishing and the sea. As a kid, growing up a couple hundred miles inland, I always drew and painted boats and lighthouses and read every sea story in the school library. As an art student at Pratt Institute in the ‘60s I spent many hours, when I should have been going to my morning painting class, taking photographs at the Fulton Fish Market, so many that I became a photographer instead of a painter. As part of my subsequent checkered job history I drove a fish delivery truck for a couple years. After moving to Rhode Island, graduating from RISD and becoming a freelance photographer I went out on fishing boats whenever I could arrange it.

 When I started painting again a few years ago, after a thirty-year hiatus, photographs I took on trap fishing boats out of Sakonnet Point were the impetus for my first fisherman paintings. Those early paintings showed more of the process of fishing: hauling nets, etc., but that’s subject matter better suited to photography. I wanted my paintings to be more iconic so I could keep the flavor of the sea, but play with color, shape and composition without worrying about the details of how fishing is accomplished, or even what a fish (or a fisherman for that matter) really looks like.

 Another recurring theme in my work is that of seabirds and rocks and the contrast between the temporality of the gulls and shags and the timelessness of the boulders or glacial erratics that they perch on. When sailing near the rocky islands and outcroppings that seabirds use as rookeries in the summer, I imagine that the shrieking of the gulls, the stench of dead fish and ammonia are the sounds and smells of the beginning of time. I love the poses of the comically sinister looking cormorants, their wings outstretched to dry in the sun.

 As a young art student I took myself and Art way too seriously. Having come back to painting relatively late in life I now understand that few artists have anything earth-shaking to say. I’m most pleased when people smile at my work. In the paraphrased words of the late Edgar Whitney, a respected art educator and watercolorist, an artist is a shape-maker, a symbol-finder and an entertainer. I take my art seriously, but my serious intent is to create something that’s well designed and fun to look at.

Felix

David Witbeck

Oil Painting

Kenneth

David Witbeck

Oil Painting