Works in all media are spotlighted during this juried exhibition at the Rowayton Arts Center. The RAC gallery is open from 12:00-5:00 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and from 1:00-4:00 p.m. on Sundays. Admission is free.The Best in Show and 1st Place artwork can be viewed at www.rowaytonartscenter.org.
Artist and art conservator Helen Kunzman of Artifacts Collections of New York and Aetifacts Lanier chose 51 artworks from 80 entries by RAC exhibiting members. She says, “As juror for this exhibition, I was presented with a wide range of media and styles. I was pleased to find fine technique and visual poetry in so many depictions of the sublime and the mundane. I hope that RAC visitors find much to ponder and take delight in.
“With such an open-ended title as ‘Marine and Coastal,’ one would expect to find classic realistic images of boats and water, shorelines and inlets offered alongside abstracted works that embrace the personal and metaphoric. The realism of a small oil painting with its fine brushwork and richness of form finds its counterpart in a poetic watercolor featuring minimal use of color and calligraphic brushstrokes - a personal vision with a strong sense of “place”. In a pen drawing there is humor and finesse of hand. A mixed-media abstraction whose connection to our theme was essentially based on its color palette caught my eye. The talented photographers of the RAC offer us a world in chiaroscuro ranging from the dramatic and bold - to a minimalism embracing subtlety and abstraction.”
Saul White, who died in April 2010, was a highly-regarded artist, photographer and Rowayton Arts Center teacher. Don Axleroad, who is underwriting the memorial award, says, “Saul was inspired by the salty scenes around Rowayton and the many kinds of boats to be seen on Five Mile River – yachts, lobster boats, cruisers, tugs, kayaks, and workboats.”
