Page 39 - South Mississippi Living - June, 2020

TOP: Heading Home by Auseklis Ozols. Oil on Canvas.
MIDDLE: Twin Scrub Oaks, Southside, Horn Island by Billy Solitario. Oil on Canvas. BOTTOM: Sunset, North Beach by Curtis Jaunsen. Oil on Panel.
as safe as you may feel, when it comes to nature – it’s a whole other level larger. And on the water, we’re even more subject to the whims of nature.”
A highly accomplished mainstay on the Gulf Coast’s plein air art scene, Mary Monk has taken two of these expeditions out to work on Horn Island in the last year. She states, “There’s a wildness about the Island that brushes all of your thoughts away and requires all of your attention to capture it. For me, part of the beauty of this Island is the special bond that I share with other artists that I have struggled with, laughed with, and shared my thoughts and of course this includes Walter. He comes
up for discussion every trip as if his spirit is prodding us to appreciate his precious island and to do it justice with our efforts.”
Billy Solitario and Mary Monk’s island works along with paintings from Jerrod Partridge, Auseklis Ozols, Diego Larguia, Curtis Jaunsen and Louis Morales will be on display at the Walter Anderson Museum in Ocean Springs through November 9 upon the reopening of the museum.
Collected together, these artists give us a glimpse of this world. Their canvas exposed to the sun and salt air, their paints inhaling the sand in the wind and the humidity from distant squalls. They are giving us brief snapshots in time, their work thickened with the island’s voice.
Walter Anderson Museum of Art www.walterandersonmuseum.org