If not always welcoming

“Wide Ocean” (painting), by Newburyport, Mass.-based artist Jennifer Day, at Miller White Fine Arts, Dennis, Mass.

'It all thrills me'

“Near The Cone Of Uncertainty” (oil, diptych), by Ed Chesnovitch, in his show “Man on the Marsh,’’ at the Cape Cod Museum of Art, in Dennis, Mass.

The show features the oil paintings of local artist Chesnovitch, who first visited Cape Cod nearly 30 years ago, when he was quickly struck by the landscape. Twelve years ago, he bought a cottage along Scorton Creek, in East Sandwich. It was a big change from his previous home, in Pennsylvania. He found it full of complexity and life, yet peaceful and meditative. "The late afternoon light of a cold October day pouring across the golden marsh grass, or the quiet hush of an early morning bathed in soothing pinks," he says, "It all thrills me." The museum says he walks for hours through the marsh, stopping from time to time to sketch. And he spends hours seeking to juxtapose and elevate colors and build up layers of paint to create depth, lushness and vibrancy.

The East Sandwich Friends (Quaker) Meeting House. Cape Cod has had a strong Quaker presence since the 1660’s.

Boardwalk over marshes in Sandwich

— Photo by Andrewrabbott

That's entertainment

“Lead Singer’’ (painting, cropped), by Bill Evaul, in his show “Song and Dance: Expressions from Life,’’ at the Cape Cod Museum of Art, Dennis, through Nov. 30.

The museum says that his show highlights his paintings, prints and drawings from across 40 years of Mr. Evaul's prolific artistic career, in which he has often sketched from life, “drawing inspiration from the performance of musicians and dancers”.

Scargo Tower, in Dennis, sits atop Scargo Hill, one of the tallest (160 feet) and best-known hills on Cape Cod. There have been three Scargo towers on this spot. The first was built in 1874 by the Tobey family, whose roots in the area go back to the 17th Century. A gale destroyed that wooden structure in 1876. Fire destroyed the second tower, known as "Tobey Tower" and also made of wood, in 1900. The present tower was wisely built of cobblestone in 1901 as a memorial to the Tobey family.

The faces of art

Work by BILL LIEBESKIND, in his show "We Make Art: 1,001 Artist Portraits'', at the Cape Cod Museum of Art, in Dennis, Mass., through June 14.

This artist has fashioned 1,001 heads of artists (including alive and long dead) from modeling clay. Incredibly, it took him only two years. Not surprisingly, he also makes comic books.

This project is educational in a number of ways. One is that it's  way for people to see what famous artists whose faces are little known actually looked like. (The faces of only a few famed artists are well known, such as those of Andy Warhol and Salvador Dali.)

That might help viewers understand their personalities a bit more.

The museum's blurb says that, in addition to his art about fellow artists,  he is "inspired by current events, such as the destruction of the World Trade Center and the dismantling of the Berlin Wall. Liebeskind attempts to make sense of the chaos in the world by using such powerful imagery in his work.''

Don't we all  try to make sense of the world's chaos -- until, usually later in life, we give up trying?