Winners Showcase - Jan. 28, 2023 - Feb. 24, 2023
Enjoy the Times Beacon Record Newspaper Article on the exhibit
Winners of 2022 Member Showcase Exhibit - Karin Dutra, Rhoda Gordon, Paul Mele (selected by Edward (Ned) Puchner, Director of Gallery North), and Long Island Landscape -from Awe to Action - Renee Caine, Catherin Rezin, Angela Stratton selected by Director of Mills pond Gallery.
Renee Caine is a realist or representational painter who specializes in watercolor and oil paintings. “My paintings are a visual diary of where I have been and what I have seen. Striving to capture the calm and the tranquility of the places I paint, my work focuses on the beauty of texture, light, shadow and contrast. I see art as a way to connect with people and share personal experiences, thoughts, and ideas. My desire when I paint is to draw others into my “ah” moment to help them see what I see and from there create their own story.
Karin Dutra is a native Long Islander primarily working in pastels and oils. “My inspiration always comes from capturing a brief moment in time that evokes a special feeling within me. As I continue to grow as an artist, I hope my work will garner an appreciation for gentle and ethereal landscapes and florals. I hope to encourage people to see a more peaceful path through nature’s beauty.”
Rhoda Gordon’s art is emboldened with color and textural elements that are both abstract and representational. The artist enjoys painting the local landscape and local street scenes as well as "pop art", including my popular "burger" paintings.
We are excited to exhibit Paul Mele’s series Confinement. “Each image carries its own weight in grief, but they also expel some form of illuminated hope.” The photographs in Confinement speak to the trials and tribulations Paul faced either physically or metaphorically throughout his lengthy rehabilitation after a car accident. The series takes us through the spaces of Paul’s life during a three-month hospital stay, nine months in a wheelchair and three years of physical therapy. As brief introductions to stories not fully told, his photographs invite us to explore and reinterpret these spaces and consider the attitudes and state of mind of those who occupy them in a world far less simple than it sometimes seems.
For Catherine Rezin, Art has always been an opportunity to create something of use or beauty. Having spent most of my career as a Commercial Artist, I am finding freedom and joy creating art for my own desire. As an Artist, I first must really see my subject and then respond with a feeling… honoring the subject, showing its beauty, and conveying a moment in time. Inspired by the beauty of nature, I never run out of sources of inspiration living on Long Island. I am in awe of the spectacular surroundings that are always around me and am passionate in my desire to convey these images in my art.
Angela Stratton was inspired to become an artist in her early years of employment at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. “While wandering the great halls of the Metropolitan I was immensely intrigued by the great masters and the style of realism. Therefore, I sought my education in the master’s tradition of academic realism. The masters have a strong impact on my work, but I adhere to expressing and developing my own style. My strong points have always been the Portrait and Figure but since retiring have been able to focus more on still life and plein air landscape painting as well. Whether working in my studio, in sketch groups or outdoors, I love being able to dedicate each and every day to the art of creating”
