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The Rehoboth Art League’s 70th Annual Members’ Fine Art Exhibition featuring 273 works opened Friday, July 18, to a huge crowd.
“It is an exceptional show, and it just seems to be one of the best fine art openings we’ve ever had” said Interim Director Lee Mills.
Show judge Ann Coates said it was a privilege to see such a wonderful cross-section of local artists. “The quality of the exhibition is a real testament to the strength of the arts community, the artists, their supporters and the Rehoboth Art League,” Coates said.
Coates presented the Sarah Ethel Tunnell Award for best in show to “Sunbather II” by Joanne Alsruhe, a member of the art league for 20 years.
“Sunbather II” is based on a photographic study made on the beaches of North Shores, Alsruhe said. “From her leopard-spotted bathing suit to her bottle of water, the woman was completely prepared to spend the day at the beach. There was something different about her, something that placed her a step above the others,” Alsruhe said. “It’s difficult to put into words, but it’s something that caught my eye.”
Coates had a similar experience in viewing the painting. “In its execution and technical aspects it is a very, very fine painting, but it also has a story to tell,” Coates said. “We’ve all related to someone like that on the beach; settled in to worship the sun and watch the day go by. It is truly an outstanding painting.”
A resident of Cecil County, Md., Alsruhe has been regularly coming to the Rehoboth Beach area since the 1960s. Honored with a one-woman show at the Homestead in 2000 and a prior award of excellence winner, many local art enthusiasts know her.
Other highlights of the show included an untitled painting by John Bayalis that was recognized with the Mary Hall Leach Award for an outstanding work and the Adelia Chiswell Award for watercolor.
Mike Blair received the Howard Schroeder Award for “Attitude,” his exciting portrait of a woman’s face, defiant and beautiful.
The Mary Derrickson McCurdy Memorial Award winner, “Dune” by photographer Steven Billups, subtly combines figurative and environmental beauty in a way that may herald a welcome expansion in the scope of art league exhibitions.
Among local favorites, artist Andrew Criss’ shift from portraits and seascapes to cityscapes and landscapes with buildings is proving successful. His oil “From the Train,” received the award for a Delaware landscape. Pastel artist Laura Hickman won the Col. W.S. Corkran Award for a painting representative of the Eastern Shore of Sussex County with “Late Afternoon, Bethany.”
Other exhibition winners are: Ken Kusterer’s painting of exceptional merit “Harry Hay, Hero of Human Liberation,” emerging Delaware artist working in a traditional style Kim Klabe for her painting “Sunny Rehoboth Backyard,” Karen Kuff-Demicco’s best sculpture “Faces from Within,” Peter Berkman’s photograph “Red Staircase” and Susan Biebuyck’s painting “Good Intentions (Killer Tomatoes).” Local artists receiving the Village Improvement Association Award are Ken Catterton and Anita Peghini-Raber.
Lifeguards and landscapes
Richard Mott’s Homestead Gallery exhibition of 27 photographs featuring the Rehoboth Beach Patrol is striking. The photographs, specifically made in a larger format for the show, are the result of more than a year’s work during which Mott spent all of last summer and the start of this summer with the lifeguards.
“It took time to establish a level of trust with the guards that would allow me to get close enough to reveal their private moments, their personal strength and how hard they work,” Mott said. Often, during training, they would be sweating, banged and bruised, he added.
With time the guards became unselfconscious and relaxed and it was in the completely candid moments in the nearness of his subjects that Mott recorded his images of strength, power, youth, promise, responsibility and contemplation.
“They love what they do or they wouldn’t do it. They earned my respect,” Mott said.
Also not to be missed are Michael McFarland’s recent pastels and watercolors on exhibit in the Ventures Gallery. The vibrant pastels range from the vivid sun-kissed skies of “Afterglow on Cabin Mountain” to the ominous dark blues of “Midnight at Bear Meadows.”
But it is the watercolors that intrigue even more. They are like the full-page fine colored prints found in classic books, protected by thick tissue paper sheets. The images seem to hold promises of stories and, without words, unfetter the imagination to contemplate what the stories may be.
The exhibitions will be on display through Sunday, Sept. 7. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon - 4 p.m. Sunday. More information is available by calling 302-227-8408 or online at www.rehobothartleague.org.
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