Inside his studio gallery tucked into Provincetown’s Whalers Wharf, artist Gaston Lacombe is embellishing a tree. Not a Christmas tree, but a tree painted on a large panel in bright stripes of color. Its limbs, rendered in geometric shapes, stretch outward from a thick trunk at the center of the composition.
During a guided meditation with his men’s group, Lacombe became attuned to what trees could teach humans about strength, resilience, flexibility, and being grounded. They are traits that a gallerist might well make use of in the chilly, uncertain days of the off-season, when sales typically decline but the need for income does not.
Every year, Lacombe kicks off the holiday season by sending a gift, usually a framed, signed, limited edition print, to everyone who has bought an original work of art from him in the last year. He also strives for a “democratic” experience in the gallery, hoping that everyone who enters will be able to leave with something, whether it’s a $5 card or a $5,000 painting.
This holiday season, many artists, galleries, and museums on the Cape are operating with a similar attitude, hoping to make buying art accessible to a wider public while also shoring up their year-end profits.
For Bob Korn, an Eastham photographic and digital printmaker, the holiday season is “a way to bring people into the studio and gallery.” He will host an open house and print sale at his Workspace Gallery on Dec. 14 where shoppers can choose from 45 different unsigned photographic prints on display, all for sale at under $100.
Korn says his primary motive is not a quick sale but cultivating a lasting appreciation for high-end digital printmaking. “It’s a chance for people to see beautiful imagery and perhaps buy a small print at a reasonable price,” he says.
In Dennis, the Cape Cod Museum of Art is mounting its fourth annual “Wrap It Up” art show featuring 216 works by almost 100 artists. Entrance to the gallery is free, and buyers “can take things right off the walls,” says Joyce Groemmer, the museum’s senior marketing manager. She recalls a museum docent once telling her, “Everyone has a place in their home for a small, beautiful piece of art.” The exhibition features small-scale work by numerous Outer Cape artists, including Monica Rozak, Aline Lindermann, Kenneth Hawkey, William Evaul, and Sangram Kachwaha.
Artist Joyce Zavorskas of Orleans has two plein air studies of Race Point in “Wrap It Up.” She completed the works last May during a residency at the Fine Arts Work Center. With a studio attached to her house and no gallery overhead (she sells monotypes at the Left Bank Gallery in Wellfleet), she is less focused on holiday sales.
“I never think about whether somebody’s going to buy it,” Zavorskas says. “I do what I love, and I hope somebody wants it.”
At Dozen Studio Gallery in Provincetown’s West End, artist and owner Keith MacLelland is making work to sell specifically during this season. He’s finding a balance between his commercial ambitions and visual interests in a series of miniature handmade buoys that serve as Christmas ornaments. They are painted in matte colors — some are even scuffed up to look like the weather-beaten buoys he finds washed ashore or acquires from lobstermen.
MacLelland has been working with buoys for years. He makes hard-edged paintings of them and also paints on the buoys themselves, often customizing the work for clients.
“I like painting buoys,” he says. “It’s representative of home to me. As an artist, I like parameters. I know there’s a few set shapes, and then anything can happen within those shapes. The object itself is a great canvas for my own purposes.”
MacLelland is pleased when people tell him they feel uplifted by the environment he creates in his gallery: a light-filled space with white walls and breezy nautical images. Most of the artists interviewed for this article agreed that this year, especially, people are yearning for images that offer a respite from political anxiety, divisiveness, and the scenes of war that fill our screens.
A gift of art is “very different from socks,” Groemmer notes with a chuckle. It’s a personal gesture in a world where product reviews and free shipping often seem to matter more than handmade objects.
“It’s something that is totally unique,” says Groemmer. “You can’t find it on Amazon.”
Other Small Works Around Town
The place: AMZehnder Gallery, 25 Bank St., #3, Wellfleet
The event: ‘Salon/Salon! — Small Works, Big Conversation’; tiny works hung salon-style by 43 artists
The time: Through Dec. 20
The place: Berta Walker Gallery, 208 Bradford St., #1, Provincetown
The event: ‘Small Works/Fine Works’; an exhibition of small colorful works by 32 artists
The time: Through Jan. 18
The place: Wellfleet Preservation Hall, 335 Main St.
The event: ‘Small Works Show’; a huge collection in various mediums hung throughout the hall
The time: Through December
The place: Provincetown Art Association and Museum, 460 Commercial St.
The event: ‘Members’ Open: Small Works’; an opportunity for art-inclined shoppers to take home work by Provincetown artists
The time: Through Jan. 12
The place: Tree’s Place Gallery, 60 Rt. 6A, Orleans
The event: ‘Small Works Show’; annual exhibition of small artworks by award-winning artists
The time: Through Dec. 28
