At North End, artists work with the idea of river romance

Friday, March 12, 2010

Click here to enlarge this photo Submitted photo "River Romance," the annual invitational show at North End Gallery, includes paintings by Nadine Chicoine. Gallery members and guests artists are featured in the exhibition. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

For the North End Gallery's annual invitational show, the theme artists were asked to respond to also doubles as the title of the show, "River Romance," which has entered the second half of its two-month run. About 30 artists, with a fairly equal split between members and guests, are featured in the show, which is sponsored by the St. Mary's County Arts Council.

North End was founded in 1986, and the cooperative gallery continues to be run by local artists. It has been housed in its current location since the early 1990s and has between 30 and 40 members who work in myriad media. The gallery uses just about all of its wall space, and recent renovations have cleared out yet more exhibition space in the back, behind a counter and display case stocked with local jewelry.

North End held a second reception for "River Romance" on March 5 during Leonardtown First. The first reception was scheduled for Feb. 5 then postponed a week due to snow. Still, the rescheduled reception, held two days before Valentine's Day, was well attended, said North End member Karen Vaughn at the gallery recently.

One of Vaughn's submissions is a realistic pastel painting set on a local farm. The focal point, the barns, was destroyed in a tornado, and another visitor praised the artist for capturing history.

Shows here rotate on a monthly to bimonthly basis, and paying homage to local scenes and sights (particularly for the painters) appears to be North End's central motif.

"River Romance," in turn, like most shows at North End, is diverse in terms of media. Here, the theme is the tie that binds. And so is the tendency, it seems, to apply it to what immediately surrounds them in Southern Maryland. (A similar thing happened in last year's "Maryland, My Maryland" show.)

Near the front window, visitors will find Mary Ida Rolape's bronze sculpture of a blue heron. In the middle room, Bud Adam's "Paleo Fish" is a wooden fish sculpture mounted on a stand. Nearby, you will find guest artist Mimi Little's "Spanning River," a portrait of the Gov. Thomas Johnson Memorial Bridge. Mixing realism and expressionism, the form of the bridge is instantly recognizable while the atmosphere encapsulating it is more vividly bright orange-red than one could dream.

You have it all here: hyper-realism; digital archival prints; a landscape made impressionistic with layers upon layers of oil; a raku pot with a fish handle.

Some submissions projected a fascination with water. Though Rex Miller is known for applying his realistic yet individualistic style to local water scenes near his home in Calvert County, he has a painting here of Baltimore Harbor Light, depicted as it would have looked in the 1930s. Miller grew up in Baltimore. You imagine this is where his love of the water began.

Of course, there are all sorts of ways to interpret "River Romance." Take Mary Beth Harry's "Heart Catcher:" The Cove Point artist and CalvART Gallery member created an oil-pastel portrait of a fisherman carrying a sack with the day's catch: It's not flapping fish, mind you, but fluttering hearts.

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"River Romance" will continue throughout March 26. Hours are 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and noon-4 p.m. Sunday. North End is at 41625 Fenwick St., Leonardtown. Call 301-475-3130. Go to www.northendgallery.org.