August 2021 Exhibits

Featured in the Thaler Gallery:

Ed Challenger: A Retrospective

Click here to view a selection of artwork online.

Born in 1932 in Newcastle, De., he served in the United States Navy before attending the Philadelphia College of Art (now the University of the Arts). His varied commercial art career saw him work as a freelance commercial artist, art director, and illustrator for various Pennsylvania ad agencies and companies. Challenger became a self-employed sculptor at age 41, and for the next 20 years exhibited his work all over the East Coast in juried exhibitions, working in metals, steel, cold cast bronze, and foundry bronze. His work was also sold at the Sales Gallery of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. At age 62 he retired to Bishopville to a life of painting and printmaking. Experimenting with various media has been his forte – oils, pastels, pen and ink, egg tempera, printmaking – both in realism and abstraction.

Featured in the Sisson Galleria:

Through August 12: Beverly Bassford Memorial Juried Show continues, featuring members of the Art League and local artists. Opening August 14, 5-8pm: Artists Paint OC Plein Air Juried Show. Click here for more information on the plein air event August 11-15.

In Studio E:

Carol Gentes

Click here to view a selection of artwork online.

Carol was born in Boston, Mass. Like many artists, crayons and coloring books were her favorite toys. When she was a freshman in high school she sold her first painting to the algebra teacher (a puma in the mountains). She graduated from Westfield State College with degrees in Biology and Art. After moving to Delaware, she opened a full service interior decorating business. In 2000, she added mural and custom wall finishes to her design services and named that business Pigment of the Imagination. Nature, birds and animals are recurring themes in her art. Her painting can be seen not only on walls, but on furniture, rain barrels, sidewalks, rock, in outdoor showers, and more. When not on site painting murals, she can be found in her studio creating art combining her love of detail with texture and abstract realism or outside taking photos of the birds and insects that are subjects of many or her paintings and products. Her photography can be found at www.CrazyNature.photos.

In the Spotlight Gallery:

Jill Glassman

Click here to view a selection of artwork online.

A former resident of Annapolis, Jill moved to the Eastern Shore of Maryland in 2003 where she is an active member of numerous art and plein air organizations including the Mid-Atlantic Plein Air Painters Association, Plein Air Painters of the Chesapeake Bay, the Ocean City Center for the Arts, the Academy Art Museum, and a juried member of the Working Artists Forum, Maryland Pastel Society, and the Pastel Society of America. Jill has competed in a number of plein air events including Plein Air Easton, Paint Annapolis, Brandywine Valley Plein Air, Harford County Plein Air, Artists Paint OC, Paint It! Ellicott City, Crisfield Plein Air, and Paint Berlin.  She has also exhibited in juried shows with the Working Artist Forum, the Maryland Pastel Society, the Mid-Atlantic Plein Air Painters Association, Ocean City Center for the Arts, and the 35^th Annual Oxford Fine Arts Show. Her most recent awards include First Place 2019 Plein Air Easton Quick Draw (non-competition artist), The Gino Manelli Award (First Place) 2019 Paint It! Ellicott City, Honorable Mention 2019 Artist Paint OC, Honorable Mention Quick Draw 2019 Artist Paint OC, and Best Nocturne, 2018 Artists Paint OC. Jill has studied at the Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts in Annapolis with artists John Ebersberger and Bonnie Anderson.  She has also studied here on the shore with Kevin Fitzgerald, Tim Beall, Stan Sperlak, David Lussier, and Nancy Tankersley. She has also taught pastel classes at the Ocean City Center for the Arts.

In the Artisan Showcase:

Helen Prah I am from Central Pennsylvania and have been married to my best friend John for 57 years. John and I have driven and spent four summers in Alaska. John and I have also spent ten winters in Quartzsite, Arizona, “The Rock and Gem Capital of the World.” I took wire wrapping classes in Quartzsite, wrapping gemstones in sterling silver. I also took classes in making pine needle baskets. I use pine needles from GA, waxed thread from Brazil, stone centers from AZ, and the final step is to coat the baskets in beeswax. John and I are happy to say Ocean City, MD is now our home.

Off-Site:

At the Princess Royale Oceanfront, 91st St: Leo Kahl (pictured).  At the Coffee Beanery, 94th St: Susan Hunsberger. The main lobby gallery at the Princess Royale Oceanfront opens an exhibit entitled “Memories of Ocean City Vacation” by painter Leo Kahl of Ocean View, De. Kahl senses and documents the art hidden within everyday lives. Proficient in multiple mediums, he primarily uses watercolor to express his reactions to mood-rich scenes. A second satellite gallery on 94^th St. is located less than a block from the Arts Center at the Coffee Beanery and features the work of Susan Hunsberger who composes her work as a puzzle of shapes. Her focus is mixed media using primarily acrylic and fabric in the co-existence of design and form.

Click here to view a selection of artwork online.