Submitted by Evelyn McDonald
Arts & Culture Reporter
October 22, 2015 9:00 a.m.
I saw the bubbles first floating across Second Street. What is it about bubbles? Somehow they always make me smile. Reminders of childhood fun perhaps? The bubbles were coming from the ground floor toy store at 5 S. Second Street. A sign saying Gilded Dolphin Art Studio & Gallery directed me upstairs. The gallery is a collaborative space housing artists Susan Ryan, Jane Reece, Charli Leniston, Linda Green, Mary Libby, Sandra Dawson, and Lynne Pilkerton.
The building formerly housed a restaurant and had been vacant awhile. It belonged to the Reece family. After a nearly a year of rehabilitation, building codes, and inspections, the gallery opened before this year’s Shrimp Festival. In September, the gallery had its formal opening. The space has so much natural light and it shows off the artwork to advantage. One side of the gallery has large windows looking out to the Amelia River. Each artist has a studio; small studios for one artist and larger ones shared between two artists. All studios have windows.
Lynne Pilkerton is the gallery owner and director. She got the space and then advertised for artists to share it. She said she carefully interviewed everyone who applied. “I wanted artists who would get along but who also worked in different media. So we aren’t competing for the best acrylic or pastel.” The artists can collaborate as well as support each other and the gallery. She mentioned one artist asking some of the others to look at what she was working on and give their impressions. The formula seems to be working well. Artists’ work is mingled on the walls so that in most areas you can see different media, styles, and subjects.
The dolphin motif pops up here and there in the gallery. In one studio, there is a hanging gilded dolphin sculpture. In another studio, there is a stained glass hanging piece with a blue dolphin on green background. In the main area, there’s a small dolphin mobile hanging in one of the windows.
Classes for adults and children are offered by some of the artists. Lynne showed me the bathroom walls which are filled with small drawings and comments contributed by many of the students of their classes.
Visit the gallery and be amazed at the variety and quality of the work. You’ll find photography, pastels, acrylics, jewelry, watercolors, and note cards. As a side bonus, the bubble machine may be on downstairs.
Evelyn McDonald moved to Fernandina Beach from the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. in 2006. She is a chair of Arts & Culture Nassau, a city commission charged with support of the arts in Nassau County. She serves on FSCJ’s Curriculum Committee for the Center for Lifelong Learning. She is also the chair of the Dean’s Council for the Carpenter Library at the UNF. Ms. McDonald has MS in Technology Management from the University of Maryland’s University College and a BA in Spanish from the University of Michigan.