Painter's Work Exhibition is Open

Tonight was the opening reception for the new Painter's Work exhibition at the Boatworks.  The beginning was slow, our corner of Belmar surprisingly empty of cars for a summer Saturday at 5, but obviously they started to find their way there.  Above and below are photos of people gathered in the front room gallery to hear the list of award winners, and below that, our typical back room crowd.

Besides the exhibition of almost 40 painting related artworks, today we also had something special in our side gallery, proposals for the Belmar Train Station mural project.  Eventually we had 11 designs submitted.  Viewers were encouraged to vote for favorite designs, results which would be considered by the committee that will eventually choose one to decorate our local train station.

Our juror, Susana Anastasia, selected 12 artworks for awards- a first place and honorable mention in each of 6 categories.  Below are the prize winning works:

First Place, Watercolor

Beverly Golembeski

Old Salt

First Place, Collage

Laraine Centineo

Meditation/Psalm 19:14

First Place, Pastel

Jean Malizia

Summer Pastimes

First Place, Oil

Lizzi Schippert

Pond, Autumn

First Place, Mixed Media

Andree Sweek/Herz

Woodland Music

First Place, Acrylic

Sven Widen

Still Life

Honorable Mention, Watercolor

Robert Stetz

Driving Her Bananas

Honorable Mention, Collage

Laurie DiStasio

Blue Serenity

Honorable Mention, Pastel

Tzelan Guh

Reflection Morning

Honorable Mention, Oil

Gerrie Vergona

Crystal and Cherries

Honorable Mention, Mixed Media

Maxine King

Inedible Fruit

Honorable Mention, Acrylic

Sandy Taylor

Ochreland

The Painters' Works exhibition will remain on display in the Boatworks through September 27, 2013.  Admission is free.

Learn Self Publishing in Belmar

Tonight was the first meeting of a new class being offered through the Belmar Arts Council.  Published author and longtime BAC member Merry Brennan is hosting a series of workshops covering many of the steps involved in self publishing.  Each week a new topic will be addressed, any of which may be interesting to potential authors, such as improving your manuscript, attention getting covers, publishing format concerns, finding a publisher, and promotion.

The workshops will be every Tuesday evening from 7:00 to 9:00 pm, through September 17th.  People can sign up for classes individually or the whole series.  Sessions are $25 each for members, $35 for non members.  Details about the individual topics are available on the main website.

BAC August Meeting

Tonight the Belmar Arts Council held its monthly member meeting.  Past chair Joe Villa was our host tonight, and provided updates as to the current and upcoming shows, the summer concert series, ongoing classes, our stage reconstruction process, the train station mural, and invited us to make suggestions for our 10th anniversary in 2014.  Beverly Miller discussed the ongoing groups that meet at the Boatworks.

Then Cindy Dunn, coordinator of the BAC Writer's Group, gave us a little background on the group and introduced four of the writers, who each gave a brief reading from one or more of their published works.

Merry Brennan read an excerpt from her recent book Peace Pilgrim, copies of which were also available for sale.  Merry also told us about her upcoming workshop series where she will teach about self publishing.  Information will be on the main website soon.

Next we heard from Freda Karpf, who read from her prose poem, The Wild Blue.

Above, Louise Rempe reads a short Belmar themed piece called The Beautiful Sea, while below, Irene Maran shares a piece called Anger Management.

The BAC Writer's Group meets the fourth Thursday of every month, from 7 to 9 pm and is open and free to all members.  More information is available on the main website.   Next month's member's meeting, September 5th, will feature art historian Barbara Lipton speaking about Eskimo masks, a way of introducing our upcoming Masquerade Art Show in October.