A PAINTER WHO FARMS and VISIONS OF HOME

Join us for this one-of-a-kind program, a special Double-Feature of wonderful films by David and Barbarella Fokos, who will join us in person for a discussion following the films.

SUMMARY of “A Painter Who Farms”:
Allen Whiting is a farmer who has been living off the land as his family has for 12 generations. Allen Whiting is also a plein-air painter, whose depictions of island landscapes can be found in the collections of the rich and famous who have been visiting his home gallery since the 70s. From his taciturn delivery to his creative expression of the beauty that surrounds him, Allen Whiting is the human embodiment of the island in which his roots run deep, and from which he derives his inspiration: Martha’s Vineyard.

SUMMARY of “Visions of Home”:
There is beauty to be found in the pattern on a porcelain teacup, or the “patina of a working boat at rest.” In her nostalgic, lifelike, and sometimes whimsical paintings, artist Heather Neill pays homage to the ordinary — items that are likely overlooked before Neill captures their essence in luxuriant color and exquisite detail. Follow Neill as she finds inspiration for her latest painting, all the while expounding on her muses, which include her wife, Pat, and a handful of dear friends who are bastions of New England Yankee-ism. From the expansive blue of the Martha’s Vineyard coastline to the verdant green of her garden in rural Pennsylvania, see the world through this artist’s eyes, and get a peek into her process, as she explores what it really means to be “home."