A Thriving Community of Artists

[caption id="attachment_55023" align="alignright" width="400"] A small work of a sailboat by James Slezak.[/caption]

By Dawn Watson

Art does not exist in a vacuum. External influences are key for its creation, as is support.

Those are a few of the reasons why Linda Capello, a figure drawing master, and her husband, John, a direct-carving sculptor, sought out the community of other artists after they moved to the East End 28 years ago. Approximately a year after settling in at their Sag Harbor home, they found the Southampton Artists Association. They joined, seeking to build relationships with other like-minded creative types.

Finding others out East who talked the talk, and understood the life of an artist, was important, says Ms. Capello. And getting the necessary feedback, as well as a place to regularly present their work, were other drivers for becoming members.

“I met someone who belonged, and they told me that it was a nice group of people who supported one another and had a good place to show,” she says of the Southampton Cultural Center-based group. “Turns out it is a very welcoming group and the showing space is terrific.”

Mounting four shows a year at the Levitas Center for the Arts at the Southampton Cultural Center, the Southampton Artists Association also conducts classes, workshops, meetings and other programs for its members. Additionally, the group puts on an annual summer outdoor exhibit at Agawam Park in the village and monthly one-person shows at the Southampton Town Hall. It’s open to not just Southampton Town residents, but all artists and supporters of the arts who live on the South and North Forks, anywhere from Remsenburg and Calverton to the west all the way to Montauk and Orient Point to the east.

Aside from paying a small membership fee, which ranges from $20 to $55 a year, and taking two-hour shifts at the gallery when participating in a group exhibition, the SAA doesn’t ask much of its members. In return, it provides a supportive community for its member artists, plus fellowship and opportunities to learn, grow and show.

“It’s a diverse group of people and good place to meet other artists—non-civilians—and to get essential feedback,” says Ms. Capello, who also teaches the Southampton Artists Association-sponsored Life Drawing Classes at the Cultural Center on Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. “Of course it also provides a place for everyone to come explore and buy great local art.”

One such opportunity will be the annual group exhibition of the “Labor Day Show,” which will be on view from Thursday, September 1, through Sunday, September 11, at the Southampton Cultural Center. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, September 3, from 4 to 6 p.m.

[caption id="attachment_55028" align="alignnone" width="800"] Artwork by Linda Capello created with charcoal and Conte´ crayon.[/caption]

Ms. Capello is putting four of her pieces in the show—two nudes and two beach scenes, created with charcoal and Conté crayon. The nudes, drawn in the studio with live models, feature views from behind. The outdoor figurative scenes, which were created at Georgica Pond in East Hampton, depict a woman in a red striped dress sitting on a chair and a woman in red standing by the water’s edge. Each of the unframed works, matted and wrapped, are all 16-inches-by-20-inches and are priced at $450.

Though she’s hung her work in a number of SAA exhibitions over the years, this time the artist is putting her drawings in the bins instead of hanging them on the walls. She has a lot going on right now, including a work in a show hanging at The Mannix Studio of Art on Gingerbread Lane in East Hampton, where she teaching Figure Drawing on Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to noon. But staying involved is crucial, she says. And keeping her hand in the Southampton Artists Association shows is a great way to do it.

Another busy artist, James Slezak of Hampton Bays, is also putting his work in this year’s “Labor Day Show.” Though there’s no specific directed theme to the exhibition, the photographer is opting to enter three nautical-themed works, “Sailboat Yellow,” “Sailboat Blue” and “Leaning Tree 10.”

Shot not too far from his home, the images were taken around Canoe Place Landing and Red Creek Road. The photos capture a serene slice of East End life that not everyone gets to see, he says.

“I like to head out and explore in the morning, when it’s quiet and still,” says Mr. Slezak. “The boats, in particular, beckon me.”

The photographer joined the Southampton Artists Association two years ago for reasons quite similar to the Capellos. He was seeking community.

Though Mr. Slezak has been interested in the art of picture taking for years, he’s only been a professional artist since 2010. This will be his first “Labor Day Show” inclusion, he reports, though he’s shown in a couple other exhibitions with the group.

Like most of his work—which has been shown at the Alex Ferrone Gallery in Cutchogue, Rogers Memorial Library in Southampton, the Hampton Bays Library, and the Long Island Biennial at the Heckscher Museum in Huntington, among others—the pieces that will hang in this invitational have been shot near the water in his home hamlet of Hampton Bays.

“I go to Ponquogue Beach just about every day. I love to take a camera with me and walk around the beach,” he says. “I like things that are a little bit surreal. Seascapes, shots in the fog. Pictures with some ambiguity in them.”

Measuring 11-inches-by-14-inches each, these particular works are on the small side by design, he says. After all, the underlying philosophy of the SAA is all about inclusion and support of fellow artists.

“They’re big enough to look nice but small enough so that way everyone has enough room to get something up on the wall if they need to,” says Mr. Slezak.

The Southampton Artists Association’s “Labor Day Show “ will be on view at the Southampton Cultural Center from Thursday, September 1, through Sunday, September 11. An opening reception is planned for Saturday, September 3, from 4 to 6 p.m. Learn more at www.southamptonartists.org