Small space on the shore

BY SARA KEDDY

Kings County Register

It may be one of the smaller art galleries around, nestled as one of three little green buildings that handle bike repairs by a brother and the father’s yard equipment.

Esther Marshall’s Little Green Building gallery, though, is swept everyday, with both doors wide open to face the Bay of Fundy off Morden. Her chair sets behind a small table - the only furniture that will fit. The walls, though, are filled with her own and family artwork.

“We built this shed specifically for this,” Esther, 15, says. The gallery is part of her home-schooling education: arts and crafts, business skills and organization.

This is The Little Green Building’s second season; Esther opened last summer for a short time, but opened in June this year and expects to be open “by chance or appointment - whatever we feel like” until the end of September.

“With art, you just do it,’ she says. “I started painting rocks - ladybugs, then watercolors. We found a pile of scallop shells, and I painted them with some scenery, mostly seashore, because that’s where we are.”

When the gallery first opened - “We were going to build it four feet deep, then we thought it was too small, so we added another two feet,” says dad dale - Esther had to work quickly to fill “all” the space.

Now, Dale’s photography, paintings and wooden mosaics of beach driftwood; sister Sarah’s handmade teddy bears and leather caps, and Esther’s work are set around in clean, bright displays.

“I might just sit here, but it can get kind of boring - there’s no traffic on Lower Road,” Esther says. “We might get a couple of people a day - I don’t even know if the neighbours know what we’re doing!”

She relies on a baby monitor while she’s in the house to let her know of potential customers.

She’s working on “more of the same,” but also practicing fine miniature work - creating homes full of furniture, rugs, small dishes and everyday features.

“I have no dolls now, and I couldn’t get the stuff to do it, so I started making everything. It’s tedious, but I like it.”