Incorporating Nature and Art

“Sunset Bench” by Denny Moutray.

The Door County Art League’s artists of the week for May 30 through June 5 offer different approaches to incorporating nature into their paintings and photography. For Mary Collette of De Pere, nature serves as the canvas for her acrylic paintings of beetle-like bugs on smooth river stones, and for photographer Denny Moutray of Gills Rock, nature is the subject.

A Door County resident since his retirement from State Farm Insurance in 2010, Moutray says he has taken pictures all over the world but nowhere else has the opportunities he has found in Door County. Largely self-taught, Moutray has studied with Door County photographers Daniel Anderson and Suzanne Rose. “Images are supposed to tell a story,” he says. “I hope mine help to tell the story of this wonderful place we call home.”

Moutray’s work is exhibited at the Sister Bay Trading Company’s Bay Art Gallery.

Collette paints expressive bug images in acrylic on smooth round stones and tags them with names such as Encouragement Bug, Grandma’s Bug and Best Friend Bug. Collette describes her You’ve Been Bugged series as “art that takes on personalities you can identify with, or with someone you know.”

The Door County Art League Gallery is open Monday through Saturday from 11 am to 5 pm, and Sunday, 11 am to 3 pm. It is located in the courtyard of the Top of the Hill shops in Fish Creek, at the corner of Highway 42 and Spring Road. For more information visit doorcountyartleague.org.