East End Arts & Humanities Council presents “Endless Summer: An Uplifting Art Exhibition” from September 9 through October 15 in two gallery locations (EEA Main Gallery & 11 West Gallery) in the Arts District, Riverhead. The show features paintings by Quogue artist Susan Cushing and Southold artist Franklin Hill Perrell. An opening reception is Saturday, September 9, from 4 to 7 PM, where visitors can celebrate the exhibition and meet the artists.
“Endless Summer” is an art exhibition with the distinctive agenda to uplift the spirits of gallery visitors in the way the most precious season on the East End does for its visitors. Susan Cushing and Franklin Hill Perrell share a passion for the positive which is undeviating and inspiring. The vehicle through which they convey these attitudes through art is simple and powerful: pure strong color.
It’s a commonplace idea that color indicates mood, and we all have our favorite colors and ways in which color makes us feel, from calm and tranquil to introspective and metaphysical. For Cushing and Perrell, respectively, the innumerable and infinite combinations of pure color provide the means to project an infinitely nuanced palette of emotion. Like nothing else, color is an energizer that can change attitudes and outlook.
The exhibition shows how Cushing and Perrell have differences of subject and handling, and how despite these variations, they share the view that art can be a vehicle for bettering the world. The artists weigh in on the bright side of all they see. “We want to demonstrate the ability to choose your focus by using the old fashioned concept: emphasize the beautiful and the good,” said Perrell. “The world may be stormy elsewhere, but not in our happy paintings where cloudless skies and sunny days are constant,” added Cushing. Gallery visitors can take a break from the ordinary and step into their painted paradise.
“Endless Summer” also hosts several happenings throughout its run, including a gallery concert collaboration with Rites of Spring Music Festival on September 14, an Artist Salon, a Be in a Painting outdoor event where guests can become subjects of a future painting, and more. Information on events will be regularly updated on eastendarts.org.