The Dartmouth Cultural Center held its monthly opening reception on Friday, Aug. 26 for a show that featured a variety of art styles ranging from abstract splatter paintings to impressionistic pastels and realistic still lifes.

This month’s exposition is an invitational that includes two dozen local artists displaying their best work.

While many of the artists were regulars of the Cultural Center, some were showing their work in the Elm Street gallery for the first time.

Scott Benson, a local painter who moved to the area from Providence just a few years ago, said he happened upon the center during the South Coast Artists Open Studio Tour earlier this month.

Benson’s paintings depicted the tools in his workshop, mounted methodically on peg board.

He said the tools he painted were handed down to him by his great uncle Lester and uncle Harry, giving them a special significance to him.

“I sort of see the tools as people,” he said.

He said that the connection he feels to his relatives through the tools adds a special quality to his works.

“It makes it a little more meaningful,” he said. “I think that comes through in the painting.”

Another artist, Amy Lund, displayed two of her works that blended painting with found objects and textiles.

Typically a weaver, Lund said the multimedia pieces were born out of necessity when she was struck with the urge to do something creative while on vacation away from her looms.

“We creative types need to keep busy,” she said.

The pieces, titled “Ocean Waves” and “Sandy Beach” use sticks, bits of string and rope, and woven fabrics that she added later on.

She said she is working on ways of adapting the medium for fall by including leaves and autumn colors.

With so many different styles and media, Gallery Director Jill Law said the show was tricky to arrange, but it was a task she was happy to take on.

“That’s the fun part,” she said. “That’s the challenge.”

But despite the difficulty, she said it was a pleasure to have so many great artworks together in the gallery.

“I felt lucky to be able to hang it,” she said. “It’s so good.”