One cannot wander the shore without feeling like an archeologist. Elizabeth Dunton's collection of ephemera poses a riddle for the viewer, are these the remains of a creature or some lost culture? Is there a meaning here or are these treasures wholly random. in any case they caught the eye of the artist, and that eye never flinched in exploring the infinite worlds they offer.

The heavy sky of Irene Volke's Incoming Tide is reflected by the weighty water that anchors the foreground of this work. Living on the Shore, attention to time and tide is ineluctable: it is the baseline of our daily rhythms. The work reminded me of some of Emil Nolde's landscapes, also an artist of the lowlands, who well represented the long flat horizon of his region of birth.

The subdued palette of Susan Stark's formal still life speaks of an elegance that seems far away, but the bright red which edges her roses bring the bouquet back to the fore. This keeps the painting fresh and alive, something that often falls away when a work displays such technical mastery.

The hot horizon on Eileen Weber's delightful little pastel glows with the last lingering glimmer of a sun which has just completed a long summer day.

A prime example of a response to the environment is Fred Leutner's Muskrat Alley. Fred leads the eye into the marsh masterfully; the green water at the foreground of the painting becomes more delineated as it leads toward the horizon. Our eye moves back and forth across his marsh as they do marshes that surround us.

In an exuberant summer garden, sometimes the more subdued color and architecture of an evergreen does not get its due. These blue spruces stand up to their more flamboyant neighbors and provide both an anchor to this walled garden and a path which leads the eye to it.

Often less is more: less detail, less range of color, even a smaller more intimate scale.  Susan McGuire's Autumnal is a simple pleasure: the colors more subdued than the imperious hues of high summer, but the golden light to the side promises a quieter pleasure to those taking in Autumn's glow.