As Dartmouth artist Gregoire Marshall unveiled his two large mixed-media canvases — one 30 inches by 40 inches, and the other 48 inches by 60 inches — he passed around five pages of text to go along with it. On those pages, he connected the seemingly disparate elements of his collage artworks, from President Washington and Lincoln, to diamonds dripping in blood, to a shadowy, gothic castle that Marshall said belongs to Dracula. 

“When you take the time to create a written understanding of what you’re writing, you enrich the piece,” Marshall said. 

As opposed to a traditional gallery showing, The New Bedford Light’s Fine Arts Club allows artists to present their work directly to the audience and have intimate conversations with the community, who may also purchase any of the works presented.

The Thursday, Nov. 16 meeting at the Dartmouth Cultural Center marked the first time the club stretched outside of New Bedford. Along with Marshall, two other Dartmouth artists showed off their work and explained their process in detail. 

Self-taught Dartmouth photographer Michael T. Morris presented “Whitewash” and “Local,” both of which prominently feature Dartmouth locations, but in stark black and white tones.

In the former, a boat in the center stands sharply in focus, while washed-out vessels drift in the background. The final canvas print is a composite of six different photos, all taken from the same location on Water Street in Padanaram. 

“I like my work to be big,” Morris said. “It has to be clear, it has to be sharp.”

Donald Fruci, also a Dartmouth artist, left the corporate world after the pandemic to pursue art full time: “I haven’t looked back since,” he said. His two canvas prints “Sea-Change” and “August” are an experiment, he said, in trying to make large artwork more affordable by selling a limited-run of prints rather than originals. 

From the crowd, New Bedford artist Isiah Botelho asked Fruci what tools he uses to apply his paint. Fruci said he doesn’t use brushes often, and instead will use his hands — or, in the case of his painting “August,” a squeegee. 

Fruci also “hates waste,” so he allows his colors to be dictated by the paint left on his palette from previous work. 

UMass Dartmouth alumni Shaila Samuel, Daniel Meath and Zach Kirschner came to the show to support their friend Botelho, but found the other artists “really engaging.”

“I actually really enjoyed the questions — that’s something that’s missing in seeing art in real life,” Meath said. “It feels more interactive.”

Samuel agreed: “It was nice to hear everybody’s thought process,” she said. 

“I’ve missed being surrounded by so many artists and interesting people,” Kirschner said.

The Fine Arts Club was created in April 2022 by the New Bedford Light to give extra attention to the South Coast arts community. It’s modeled after an arts group in Detroit that painter Ron Fortier experienced during his time in the city. 

“We wanted it to be accessible for established and emerging artists,” said Lean Camara, New Bedford Light’s CEO. “We do really want to be able to elevate artists in our community.”