“Whether men write with phallic pens or women conceive of fetal art remains a matter for academic debate.But gallery owner Beverly Thetford is nurturing women artists with maternal care – and you needn’t be a feminist theorist to appreciate the results.I’m just one of the lucky ones, says paper artist Wade Garretson, among many who blossomed because of Thetford’s eye for talent and heart for praise. Standing in Pastiche Antiques on Winslow Way, her haven for artists of more than one X chromosome, Thetford is at ease describing the subtle intricacies of the works she displays. So many of my girls just don’t realize their talent, she says.Six years ago, Thetford began to promote the work of female friends who were apprehensive about their artistic gifts.Charging no commission and fuelled by her mother’s love of museums, she began displaying friends’ work in her antiques store. Within three weeks she had a year’s worth of exhibitions planned. She has found that many of her artists went on to exhibit in galleries or to work on larger projects.I like to watch (the artists) feel their way, Thetford says. Taking Wade’s individually hand-drawn and hand-colored stationary as an example, she and the artist explain the emphasis the store places on labor-intensive work.As the two women finish each others’ sentences, Thetford smiles – I give these women the ideas they already had, she says. And for Thetford and her artists, ideas come from the island’s surroundings. Garretson’s observation that the beaches, water and light offer a new prism for perception, inspires Thetford to muse on the artistic implications of what she calls the living experience of Bainbridge. Thetford whimsical turn of phrase taps into the raison d’etre of the kind of work her antiques store welcomes. While Wade describes the broaches she makes from local beach glass as a whim, fellow artist Maggie Gruber terms the dolls she carefully crafts as nothing more, and nothing less, than a gift of love. Another featured artist, Kay Mort, terms her furniture a little bit of whimsy, explaining the 17th century French influence upon her work as a romantic inclination. Mort is displaying at Pastiche Antiques during Arts Walk this weekend, with Thetford producing a flier. This is how Kay presents herself, Thetford says – and her decision not to use the word publicity is deliberate, for if she insists on anything, it is that art need not be insisted upon. People simply find what they need here, she says, particularly the artists.”