Don't Miss: 'Peconic Bay Impressionism' Exhibit In East Hampton

EAST HAMPTON, NY — It's the last chance this weekend to take in an historic exhibition that has East End residents delighted to breathe in a bit of the area's rich artistic history.

"Peconic Bay Impressionism," will be shown at the Gardiner Mill Cottage Gallery, located 36 James Lane in East Hampton, through August 14 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

In addition to masterpieces such as the painting shown above by Whitney M. Hubbard, there are numerous photographs and memorabilia that accompany the exhibit. Artists displayed in the exhibition include Larry Waitz, Caroline M. Bell, Julia Miller Wickham, Harold A. Hedges, Madeline Horton Bassarear, Albert Latham, Whitney M. Hubbard, Annie Grabie Young, Rachel Beebe, Elliot Alvah Brooks, and Otto Joseph Kurth.

The Peconic Bay Impressionist movement was founded by two women in the 1890s who "broke away from 'academic' painting and became one of the earliest groups of 'plein air' painters," said Terry Wallace, executive director of the Gardiner Mill Cottage Gallery. "The group grew to eight women until the late 1920s, when men were allowed to join."

The women, he said, traveled as a group to Europe, Alaska, Massachusets, Vermont, and Woodstock, NY before 1920, he said.

The artists, he said, were North Fork born and bred, their names representing veritable pillars of Southold Town — Wickham, Moore, Horton, Latham, Howard, Raynor, Brooks, Bell. "Those are founding family names," Wallace said. "The artists were related to one another through blood or marriage."

The artists rented space in East Hampton and participated in early exhibitions at Guild Hall, the Parrish Art Museum, and the Long Island Museum, Wallace said.

The Peconic Bay Impressionism movement lasted about 125 years, he said. And the legacy lives on, with women founding the area's first cultural organization, the Old Town Arts & Crafts Guild in Cutchogue, which still exists today.

Next up at the Gardiner Mill Cottage Gallery is an exhibit that kicks off on August 19, a photography exhibit by Aldred F. Ross, "On The Pond," to benefit the Friends of Georgica Pond Foundation.