A retrospective exhibition of watercolor works by well-traveled West Tisbury artist Ann Howes opens tomorrow at Featherstone Center for the Arts, including pieces from her past painting trips abroad, across the United States and the Island. í

“I’m going to have two interior scenes [from her private collection] that helped me get juried by the American and National Watercolor Societies,” she said. One is a fishing shack in Menemsha — a very strong dark with three windows backlit, with paraphernalia hanging in windows,” from the early 1990s, she said. “The other is an interior of my painting studio, done around 2000 with my drawing table and a poster on the wall, a pottery tub with brushes, a lot of white hitting the drawing board.”

Ms. Howes will include a set of framed Christmas cards she designed for the Philadelphia chapter of the American Cancer Society. “I did eight cards each year for them to sell for the benefit of the society and these were very successful, with $143,000 in ’02 and $151,600 in ’04 being raised for research,” she said.

She works almost exclusively in transparent watercolors on Arches coldpress paper. í“I do not stretch my paper first, but instead tape it to board to prevent warping; that way I do not take the sizing off the paper before painting onto it, which I feel gives me a little more control over the intensity of the colors,” she said.

Of the Vineyard scenes, most are Up-Island: Lucy Vincent Beach, Gay Head and Menemsha Harbor.

Ms. Howes is on the board of the Old Sculpin Gallery and has had shows there. She also has shown throughout the country in California, Arizona and Pennsylvania.

An artist’s reception is on Sunday, Oct. 5, from 4 to 6 p.m. The retrospective runs through Wednesday, Oct. 8. Gallery hours are daily from noon to 4 p.m. For further information visit featherstonearts.org or call 508-693-1850.