Swampscott to showcase local art starting Sunday

SWAMPSCOTT – The local fine arts scene dates to the 1860s when Boston painters escaped the city heat and bustle to recuperate and paint by the shore. With their annual Members’ Summer Show at The Gallery at Grosvenor Park Nursing Center, the Swampscott Arts Association is continuing the theme of “restorative art.””It changes the environment for the staff,” said Gallery Director and show Curator Nancy Ferguson. “It’s entertaining for residents, other people use this hallway for therapy, we have visitors coming to see patients and it brings the general public in ? sometimes they even buy things!”The annual Swampscott Arts Association Summer Show runs Sunday through Sept. 8 and includes 50 works of art in media including photography, oil and watercolor painting and more by members from Swampscott, Lynn, Salem and other area towns, according to Ferguson. There will be an opening reception at the gallery from 3 to 5 p.m. on Sunday, with the public invited. The gallery will be open daily from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekends. Grosvenor Park is located on Loring Hills Avenue in Vinnin Square.The Swampscott Arts Association began in the 1940s by professional Swampscott artists who wanted to exhibit their work together and was formally incorporated in 1975. The association holds regular exhibits, demonstrations and art lessons, and juried shows each year in order to continue the area’s artistic tradition.”The story of art has been in this area for 160 years and it’s never going away,” said association President Barbara Gherzi. “The area is simply packed with artists.”Since 1990, the organization has held its events at Marian Court College. But Ferguson has worked at the Grosvenor Park gallery since 2001 and this year convinced the association to take two shows a year on the road.And like their artistic colleagues of the 19th century, today’s artists take inspiration from the local scenery.For the association’s newest member Brenda Rangel, the show provided her first attempt at painting water with oil paint. The resulting effort – a landscape painting of Halibut Point in Gloucester entitled “For the Halibut” (say it aloud), – graces the show’s postcards and invitations.”I put art on hold for 30 years,” the recently retired federal court employee said. “I’m trying to find my place again and am so excited. “I’m really impressed with this ? it’s the perfect place to hold an art show.”Plus, the nursing facility doesn’t offer many stipulations for hanging a show.”They provide refreshments for the opening and don’t receive commission,” Gherzi said. “All they required of the Arts Association was to design and have a card.”But Grosvenor Park certainly benefits from the show.First of all, the facility residents and staff get to be the show jury and vote on which painting is awarded the Best of Show ribbon.But most importantly, the art is therapeutic.”I bring people down here who have a stroke and it gives us something to talk about ? it stimulates their minds,” said Speech Pathologist Julie Levy. “It’s great to be able to walk with residents down the hall. We all look forward to see what’s here.”