Art on the Edge 2013 Reception

Despite the on and off rain all day, quite a crowd showed up for the opening reception for this year's edition of the annual Art on the Edge exhibition.  Just about every one of our new parking spots was filled up.

Before long the Boatworks was packed with people eager to see the over 70 works in this always unusual show.  Lots of the usual painting, drawing, photography, prints, and sculpture, plus Art on the Edge always brings a larger amount of mixed media and collage based work than most of our shows; we even have some scotch tape and ripped paper.  People moved around the building all day, but as usual the crowd formed in the back room where the tables, refreshments, and entertainment could be found.

The entertainment for the day was Dr Void and the Death Machines.  They had the house rocking up until the end of the evening.

The following pieces were chosen for prizes by this year's jurors, Jenn Hampton, Jill Ricci, and Sarah Potter from Parlor Gallery in Asbury Park:

Best in Show

Bill Ross

The Lizard King

Charcoal

First Prize

Richard Rappleyea

She-Winged

Photography

Second Prize

Christopher Fitzgerald

1985

Multimedia

Third Prize

Andrew Dennis

Smile Please

Watercolor

Fourth Prize

Amy Puccio

No Strings Attached

wood mosaic sculpture

The Art on the Edge exhibition will reman on display in the Boatworks during regular gallery hours (Wednesday to Saturday 1 to 5 pm) through June 14th, 2013.  Admission is free.

Ice Cream and Murals

Tonight the Boatworks hosted the May monthly members meeting for the Belmar Arts Council.  In honor of the recently warming weather, we had an ice cream social, with everyone in attendance being offered vanilla and/or chocolate, along with various toppings.  After that, drawings for door prizes.

And as if that wasn't enough, the meeting featured our own Pat Hutchinson doing a presentation about the barrier mural project that the BAC launched over the winter, even as we were not able to make use of the Boatworks.  We decided that the concrete barriers placed on all the streets up near the ocean front to divert traffic from the repair and construction zones were a great opportunity to create a new series of murals.  Pat's presentation showed many examples of the resulting murals, all painted by volunteers in and outside of the BAC.  Many examples of these barrier murals can be seen earlier on this blog.  Since then much of Ocean Avenue has opened up, and the barriers have been put to new uses in other parts of town, but many of the murals are still intact and we have reason to believe that this project is far from done.  Perhaps we'll have an update soon on where these paintings can be seen .

Belmar Art Walk 2013

Today was Belmar's annual Art Walk event.  Local artists were set up in and around businesses up and down Main Street, and that included a bunch of people from the BAC.  Our members were displaying visual art, music, and the written word.  For the occasion we had the Boatworks open all day, and we had visitors throughout the day, including quite a few first time visitors.  The beautiful spring weather didn't hurt.  The official end of the day was live music at the Boatworks from our Jam Band.

A New Place to Paint

When you combine a huge gathering of paint cans and the Belmar Arts Council, usually that means there's a mural in progress.  Not quite the case here.  Yes, some of us have been involved in a big painting project, but in this case it's the sets for a play.  Pat Hutchinson, who has been a big part of our mural projects, agreed to be part of the effort to decorate the sets for the upcoming production of Spamalot at the Algonquin Arts Theater in Manasquan.  For the past three weeks, she and some other volunteer BAC artists (including Bonnie Smith, Ralph McGeehan, Paul Bonelli, and Jim Aberle) have been lending their painting talents to create the backgrounds and scenery for much of the play.

One if the first things we worked on was a scary and expensive looking forest, painted on large pieces of burlap.  A basic line drawing was created, and a grid was used to transfer it to two very large L shaped pieces, one for each side of the stage.  A sketch done with markers for the left side forest can be seen above.  Below, our painters have started to block in some simple colors.

In subsequent days, colors were added in the background, and layered color was used to indicate patterns of leaves and other natural features.  Similar methods were later used to create a large piece that will hang between the two side L's

Those weren't the only trees painted.  Above, Ralph paints two stylized freestanding wood trees, first with green paint last week, then today adding snow to the tops of the branches.  Below, Pat works on a bit of scenery that will show the effects of a particularly nasty creature encountered by the play's hero.  Our people were responsible for painting many other smaller freestanding pieces that will be on stage.

Another really big project was producing stone wall backdrops.  Lucky for us, the stone was painted on cardboard backed with wood frames, because some of these sections are 20 feet tall.  Once dried, these were carried to the stage and permanently attached to the main set.  Above, Ralph and Jim are shown adding highlights to the "tops" of the stones.  Below, more stone drawn and painted by Pat and Paul, on what had been raw wood just hours earlier, surrounded by the chaos of other construction, lighting tests, and a fog machine.

A wider shot, showing more of this large construction, which includes hidden stairways, and panels that unfold to change the settings.  There are a lot more things that were painted over the past 3 weeks, both from the BAC artists and from other volunteers, but we want to save a few surprises for those going to see the show, which opens this coming Friday.

Discovering Peto's World

This evening the Boatworks hosted the BAC's monthly member meeting.  After the usual business, we had a special presentation about the artist John F. Peto.  The artist lived and studied painting in Philadelphia in the late 19th century, becoming a master of the trompe l'oeil style of still life painting,  and a part of the established Philadelphia artist community.  After a few years of enjoying vacations in Island Heights, he decided to permanently relocate there, building a house/studio for himself and his family.  He remained there until his death in 1907.  That house, which had remained in his family for over a century, has recently been restored and opened as a museum devoted to the life and work of Peto.  Harry Bower, a trustee from the museum, talked about the process of restoring the house and about the kinds of things they continue to learn as part of their restoration process.  Then we saw a video presentation about the artist, his life, his contemporaries, and his work.

Jersey Shore Juried Art Show 2013

Spring is still taking its time getting to the Jersey Shore, but at least we had a clear day for our 9th Annual Jersey Shore Juried Art Show.  Plus a bonus- the major paving project that has kept our grounds in a muddy turmoil for the past few weeks has been completed enough that we had dozens of paved parking spaces available for visitors to the show.

The Jersey Shore Juried Art Show is the longest tradition we have at the BAC, even predating our time in the Boatworks.  It's also our most popular show every year in both submissions and attendance.  Hundreds of people came through the building during the two hours of the reception.

For the first time since last fall we had all three galleries available for the exhibition, space needed to display the 89 artworks chosen by juror Kay Stables of Goldsmith's College, University of London.

Before presenting the prizes to the artists chosen by the juror for awards, we had a bit of leftover business from last year.  Our last show before Hurricane Sandy was Art for Autism, still on the walls when the storm arrived.  The exhibition not only provided a location to exhibit work created by participants in last year's Beach Bash event, but was a fund raiser for the Belmar First Aid Squad, thus that giant check shown above.

After that, exhibition chair Pat Hutchinson announced the six winner from this year's show:

Best in Show

Gary Dates

iPad App

archival inkjet print

First Prize for Painting

Sheilagh Casey

Memory Vessel

Acrylic on Canvas

First Prize for Sculpture and Fine Crafts

Lauren Bellero

No Beginning; No End

Clay

First Prize for Drawing and Graphic Arts

Ellen Scharfenberg

Remembrance of Summer

Pastel

First Prize for Mixed Media

Robert Varcoe

Hangin' at Hojo's

Mixed Media

First Prize for Photography

Joe Villa

Back Room

Photograph

Besides the honors and ribbons, the six award winners will share a whole exhibition just for themselves early next year.

This exhibition was sponsored by the following trustees of the Belmar Arts Council: Dana Cohoon, Barbara Griffin, Pat Hutchinson, Alexandra Martin, Tracie Orsi, Christina Sanes, Tom Volker, and Joan and Ira Wallace.

The 2013 Jersey Shore Juried Art Show will be on display at the Boatworks through May 3, 2013.  Gallery hours are Wednesday to Saturday, 1 to 5 pm.  Admission is free.

JAS9 Participants Announced

On Wednesday morning, the list of chosen artworks for this year's Jersey Shore Annual Juried Art Show was announced on our main website.  The juror chose 87 pieces, a mix of paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures, and fine craft items.  Winners in the categories will be announced at the opening reception on March 23rd.

Having chosen 87 pieces, a number a bit larger than that were rejected from the show and should be picked up as soon as possible.  Artists should arrange to pick up their pieces on Thursday March 14th between 1 and 5 pm, and Friday March 15th between 1 and 7 pm.  A small fee will be charged per day after that for unclaimed work, so try to get there by Friday.

If you have not been to the Boatworks since dropping off your work by this past weekend, you may be in for a bit of surprise.  The street and parking lot reconstruction that has been going on for the past month or so kicked into high gear this week.  Our block is a wide swath of mud and construction vehicles right now, leaving very little parking near our building and a convoluted path to our front door.  We are told that this will all be finished well before our opening reception on March 23rd.  You can still get to the building for the next few days, but you should allow yourself a little extra time to find parking and wear shoes suitable for walking across the dirt and mud.

JAS9 Comes In

The show of award winners from last year's JAS8 just came down yesterday, and moments later, the artworks for the JAS9 started arriving.  That continued for a few hours this morning and afternoon.  With this show, the BAC has added an innovation- artists can preregister and prepay online before arriving at the Boatworks.  And many had done that this weekend.  They still had to show up to bring the actual artworks, but they got to skip the first table and maybe some steps at the second.  For those who still wanted to go the traditional way, we had that option; we had a couple of computers set up so that our volunteers could enter the information directly into the computer, rather than write it on paper first and have to copy it later.  This system doesn't automatically count the number of pieces that came in, but our estimates were that we had at least 200 works dropped off over the two days.

Early next week our juror, Kay Stables of Goldsmith's College, University of London, will select the work that will appear in the show, as well as the award winners in six categories.  The list of works chosen for the exhibition will appear on the BAC main website starting some time this Wednesday, March 13, 2013.  Artist should pick up the rejected works between 1 and 5 pm on Wednesday and Thursday, and 1 and 7 pm on Friday, March 15th.  The show officially opens with a reception from 5 to 7 pm on Saturday, March 23, 2013.

JAS8 Judge's Choice Reception

Every year for the past 8 years, the BAC has held an annual juried show in the spring.  And for the past 6 years, the tradition has been that the award winners from that show get an exhibition of their own the following year.  So the process of putting together the current exhibition at the Boatworks goes back to last April, and the 8th Annual Juried Art Show, but things didn't pick up until the beginning of January and the reopening of the Boatworks.  The artists met a number of times over the past month, to work out such details as the layout of the show, their contributions to the opening reception, production of the postcard announcements, and the installation of the show.  But each deadline was met.  All the work was in place a few days ago, the threats of snow never materialized, and the artists all showed up with arms full of food and drink.  And before too long, the viewers showed up, too.

Three of the artists shared the front room of the Boatworks.  A crowd above checks out some digital abstracts from Rick Alvarado, as well as the clay sculptures of Carol Gleason.  Below, a few more sculptures and some of Guido Guazzoni's landscape paintings.

The back room featured art from two artists, both using grids as part of their design.  Seen above is part of Paul Bonelli's 366 woodcut print Fourth of July series, which occupied the whole back wall.  Beverly Hertler filled the remaining walls with her colorful quilt pieces, combining traditional fibers and other materials.

Several dozen visitors came through, all very impressed with the artwork both individually and collectively, leaving a tough act to follow for next year's group of winners.  This year's Judge's Choice exhibition remains on display during regular gallery hours through March 8, 2013.

March 8th is also the first day of intake for the 9th Annual Juried Art Show, so start thinking now about what art you'd like to submit.

This Weekend at the Boatworks

Over the past several days the five winners of last year's annual juried show have been filling the Boatworks with examples of their art.  There are digital abstracts from Rick Alvarado, woodcut prints from Paul Bonelli, hand made clay sculptures from Carol Gleason, oil paintings from Guido Guazzoni, and fiber arts from Beverly Hertler.   It all officially debuts this coming Saturday evening at the opening reception.  The reception is from 5 to 7 pm on February 16th and the show remains on display during regular gallery hours (Wed to Sat 1 to 5 pm) through March 8, 2013. Admission is free.

After the receptions ends we'll be getting the building ready for our latest musical performance.  The BAC will be hosting the Rodeo Junkies, featuring Jo Wymer, Vic Della Pello, and Helen Radtke.  The show begins at 8 pm, with tickets available for $10 at the door.

Art Walk on A Street

Despite whatever the groundhog tells us, we still have at least a little bit of winter left.  We spent a good bit of today in the 20's, and we ended the day with snow.  Despite the cold and wind that seem like they've been around for weeks, a lot of people have been on A Street, checking out the concrete barrier murals.  Some driving by, and some braving the cold to tour them on foot.  And the volunteers have been busy on the few warmer days that we've had, because some new ones have been started, and some earlier ones have been added to.  Our blog page about this project has been updated to include the  latest versions of this concrete barrier art, so if a visit to this gallery along A isn't practical, check the work out on our blog.

Black And White Reception

A very exciting night tonight, the debut of the newly restored Boatworks.  Freshly painted walls and floors greeted the crowds who started pouring through the door this evening at 5:00 to be part of our Black And White Salon Exhibition.  Paintings, drawings, prints, photos, sculptures, all executed in black and white.  Even those in attendance (we estimate at least 100 people) were dressed in black and white.

This show fills both the front and back galleries.  Above, visitors check out some black and white art on our new angled wall, which gives the whole room a better view of the stage.

Many just grabbed a table early in the reception to enjoy refreshments, and to talk with old friends who  were happy to be able to come to the Boatworks again.

Black and white wines?  No, we couldn't pull that off.  But red and white seemed to work just fine for tonight's crowd.

The main purpose of tonight's gathering was the Salon.  All artists who were present gathered in the front room starting at 5:30 for the event.  We started with work #1 on our checklist, and went around the room, with each artist having the opportunity to talk about their piece.  Some of the participants regularly work in black and white, while others talked about it as a challenge, but one worth exploring.  The crowd, as large as any that have ever squeezed into that room, could ask questions of the artists if they wanted, and sometimes they did.

The Black and White exhibition will remain up through February 8, 2013.  Regular gallery hours are Wednesday through Saturday, from 1 to 5 pm.  Admission is free.

The Boatworks is Back in Business

This Saturday night, January 19th, the Boatworks will officially reopen for BAC activities.  First is the opening reception for the year's first exhibition, Black and White.  More than 60 works were dropped off last week by BAC members, many different media, all executed in black and white.  The reception is a Salon, so artists in the show will be invited to briefly talk about their pieces and processes.  The reception begins at 5:00 pm, with the Salon itself to start by 5:30.  All in attendance are requested to dress in black and white.  As usual, there is no admission fee for the reception.

The Salon ends at 7:00 pm, and then we will get ready for our first musical performance of the year, in our newly reconfigured back room.  Gwynne and Paige Alden will be performing a mix of original folk, pop, and alt country, beginning at 8:00 pm.  Tickets are $10 at the door.  There will be lots more music coming up in 2013- a list of some of the scheduled performers can be seen on the home page of the BAC main website.

That we have the Boatworks back in shape for art and music is due to the hard work of dozens of volunteers.  We couldn't have done it without them.  Here is a list of some of the names we recalled:

Jim Aberle, Harry Aschoff, Sally Behler, Alison Bowie, Barbara Brennan, Tom Brennan, Mike Carroll, Dana Cohoon, Tara Collins, Mary Fenton, Steve Harrison, John Hutchinson, Pat Hutchinson, Janice Keown-Blackburn, Chris Krebs, Ali Martin, Michael Miller, Glorianna & Dominick Parisi, Neil Scheck, Bonnie Smith, Dave Taylor, Sandy Taylor, Joe Villa, Tom Volker, plus Cody from  North Jersey and Mike the Sheet Rocker.    If we think of anyone else, we'll add them later.

Belmar in Black and White

Work has been progressing on the Boatworks.  New drywall is in place, and a few minor interior changes will make the space more usable.  The race is on to get the place cleaned and painted, but things are looking good for us to have our first exhibition of the year, Black and White.  This show is a Member's Salon, so it's not juried and open to all BAC members.  Just a few conditions- all work must be in black and white (and all the grays between those two), and they are requesting that all participants and visitors to the reception dress in black and white.  Being that this is a Salon type show, the reception will also provide all artists with the opportunity to briefly present their work to the crowd (like we did here and here) and even take a few questions.

The intake of work for the show is scheduled for Saturday, January 12, 2013, from 10 am to 1 pm, assuming that the Boatworks rehabilitation is complete by then.  (check the main BAC website for any possible changes, as well as the complete list of rules and the entry form) The Salon reception will be on Saturday, January 19, 2013 from 5:00 to 7:00 pm.  The show will remain on display through February 8, 2013.