Exploring the Berkshires with oil paint

The Berkshires may not be the first thing most people think of when they think of Massachusetts, but the region has captivated the interest of artist Marty Keating.

“The Berkshires go back to the Native American era, and you feel that out there,” Keating said. “There’s a timelessness … that I love painting.”

This November, Keating is showing her artwork at the Dartmouth Cultural Center in an exhibit she’s calling “South Coast and the Berkshires,” which features landscape paintings from across the state.

Keating’s artistic journey began almost 50 years ago after she took a course in silk screening and began making greeting cards, which she sold at Quincy Market in the 70s.

Keating, who co-founded 6 ½ Bridge Street Gallery, has shown her artwork at the Little Compton Community Center and at various summer shows, but had not yet shown it in the Dartmouth Cultural Center.

The paintings featured in the exhibit include the Little River Bridge and various marshes, which she said are her “favorite thing.”

Keating is a “transplant” to Massachusetts from Virginia but paints all things Massachusetts.

“I’m painting the coastal areas of Massachusetts and all the way across the state at the other edge of the mountainous terrain there, which is extremely beautiful in a completely different way,” she said.

Keating’s exhibit features oil on canvas paintings, which took her anywhere from months to just “three or four sittings” to paint.

While Keating uses brushes to paint, she also often uses a palette knife.

“I put the paint on and then go back in and scrape it off and put on another later,” she said.

“It’s kind of adding and subtracting,” she added. 

Keating rarely uses reference photos, opting to mostly use her imagination, and rarely draws on the canvas, preferring to go “alla prima,” she said, which is an Italian phrase that means “at first attempt.”

Keating also enjoys painting her artwork “a little out of the ordinary” by “simplifying” the landscapes and “exaggerating” the colors.

“I want the colors to jump out, and sometimes I’ll do something and I feel like it’s too pedestrian, and I won’t be happy with it,” Keating said. “And then I’ll go back into it and change things around.”

“I don’t draw unless it’s a very specific image,” she added.

In September, Keating participated in the cultural center’s wet paint event, which was when the center’s gallery director, Jill Law, recognized her talent.

“I said, ‘This lady has to have a show at the Cultural Center,” said Law, who organizes the monthly exhibits, including finding the artists to exhibit.

The showing, which began on Nov. 1, runs until Nov. 23.

“I’m just really grateful to have this opportunity and show in this beautiful space,” Keating said. “I really can’t emphasize that enough.”