Tucked into a sliver of space next to the Onset Post Office is an art gallery truly fit for a beach community. With white shells on the floor and bright blues and greens on the walls, the open air gallery is an inviting space that celebrates local art and artists.

Michelle Brodeur has owned and operated the Front Yard Gallery in Onset Village for the last 10 years. A jewelry maker by trade, Brodeur sells paintings, sculptures, jewelry, figurines, outdoor and indoor decorations and more, even chainsaw art.

Brodeur said she met the chainsaw artist, who makes animal sculptures with a chainsaw, by happenstance, after seeing his work on display at his home when she was lost trying to find a different art vendor.

“You never know who you’re going to meet or who’s going to walk through the door,” she said.

Brodeur said she wanted to give her gallery the outdoor, easygoing feel of a craft fair – something she would know about, having traveled to shows across the country for 35 years selling her own jewelry.

She said she never thought she would be a retailer or run a gallery, but that changed when she moved to Onset.

“When I came here, I think I was ready for a change,” she said.

Her parents bought property in Onset in the 1980s and Brodeur built her home here in 1997. When she first moved here she became interested in photography and started putting up large prints of her work in her front yard in Point Independence, hence the name the Front Yard Gallery.

When the space on Onset Avenue came up for sale, she thought it would be great to have an outdoor art setting.

The art has a local feel both in how it’s produced and consumed.

Brodeur said she is currently working with eight artists from Massachusetts and that she enjoys going around town and seeing her pieces decorating different houses.

She said she has a large network from trade shows, but also finds artists just by meeting people who walk into the gallery.

“It’s incredible how many creative people there are who can’t make it to shows or otherwise do this full time, and I’m an outlet for them,” she said.

Brodeur said she hopes by next spring she will be able to sell food and coffee out of the trolley car inside the gallery. The car, made by a friend of hers from Falmouth, was hauled to Onset in pieces and reassembled inside the gallery.

She also hopes to get back to making her own jewelry, something she hasn’t had much time for while running the gallery, and to perhaps hold some jewelry-making demonstrations.

“Being here for 10 years and talking to people, it just evolves into what it’s meant to be,” she said of her gallery.