Montauk Pioneer - August 29, 2008

Among the more obvious advantages to living in the Hamptons, there's also the prevading variety of art venues. Montauk's Depot Gallery is one such place, which quite frankly doesn't get as much promotion as other places on the East End. Perhaps it's because Montauk is still considered somewhat isolated, although we hear it's becoming a new "hot" spot.

The Depot Gallery's name is apt, located at the old LIRR train station. (There is no new train station.) This critic can't help but recall the movie with Jim Carey which finds him getting off at this very same depot on a day off from work. Of course, the film was totally confusing and essentially surrealistic.

The Depot Gallery's setting is neither confusing nor surreal. Quite the opposite. In fact, the neighboring ponds and fields add a special calm to the surroundings. The art inside The Depot is calming as well.

There's something about The Depot that goes beyond the art exhibit, however. It's the fact that the gallery represents a real center for art activities, with brochures displayed and classes offered. Here's a place, too, where local artists can get exposure. Nature is the subject of the current show. Works by Catherine Silver not only feature local scenes (like "The Awakening of Nature") but also celebrate diverse materials as well. Such variety includes her montage of bark and cloth, pieces of encaustic and collage, oils on canvas, and watercolors.

Ms. Silver shows an effective technical command in combining some of these materials as she also conveys a sense of place with works like "Mysterious Sun Rise." Yet the artist goes beyond the literal representation of her subjects with "The Past and the Future Are Here," a collage and pastel piece which again shows her ability to use different media, colors and shapes effectively.

Photographs by Christine Zaffarese provide other kinds of diversity. In their detailed exploration, rocks, waves, butterflies and seals communicate an acute sense of the here and now as well as an aura of timelessness. There's an "other worldliness" about the subjects that even places the nature scenes in a surreal realm.

Ms. Zaffarese's arresting use of the close-up makes this effect possible. Moreover, it makes us wonder what it is about the close-up that evokes such an feeling. Close-ups, of course, are nothing new in

the world of nature photography; it allows for us to see what is not visable to the naked eye. But it also gives a spiritual sense to the object, perhaps the greatest gift of the close-up.

While Sonia Stratford's oil, " Respite in Provence," does not feature a close-up, it also evokes an atmosphere complete with details. Yet it is the scene's emotional effect on the artist that really is its major aesthetic aspect. And the fact that we, the viewers, can imagine ourselves in this very same courtyard, experiencing the very same feelings as the artist.

Ms. Stratford's "Bayside" is another work where emotion plays a major part, especially helped by the artist's painterly technique.