One of the area’s most renowned and beloved artists, Kevin Fitzgerald, headlines the Art League of Ocean City’s August gallery offerings with a reception on the first Friday, Aug. 1, at the Ocean City Center for the Arts on 94th Street bayside, from 5 to 7 p.m. The public is invited and complimentary refreshments will be served.
An Eastern Shore resident for 30 years, creating most of his work in studio in Newark, MD, Fitzgerald is exhibiting his paintings for the first time in Ocean City, noting that the new Arts Center, with its spaciousness and quality of light, presents the perfect backdrop for his art. Nationally known, Fitzgerald’s paintings are included in private collections throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia.
Fitzgerald will exhibit 30 of his finest landscape paintings – large evocative studio images that are almost blurred to the abstract and smaller “plein air” paintings he produces in the field, which he says are “all about speed and spontaneity, done in an instant, completed in one session.”
To celebrate this special event, the Art League produced and will offer for sale an exhibition catalog showcasing Fitzgerald’s works from this show.
Rounding out an outstanding month of art will be the works of Nancy Orme Mysak and Mary M. Back. A native of the Eastern Shore,Nancy Orme Mysak portrays the beauties of this rural area in her representational watercolor and acrylic paintings. She has had many solo and group shows both locally and regionally and won numerous arts awards. Mary M. Back currently teaches painting and pottery with an emphasis on seascapes and nautical-themed pottery at her studios in Daytona Beach, Florida and Greenbackville, Virginia. Mary exhibits her work across the East Coast.
Helene English’s contemporarypaintings in an abstract style continue on through Aug 8 and David Simpson, the Art League’s “Summer Artist-in-Residence” for July, August and September, will continue to display his work in Studio D and will be teaching at the Arts Center throughout the summer.
Beginning Aug. 9 and running through the entire month, the collected works of 50 artists who will be creating art “en plein air” – painting outdoors directly from nature all along the beaches, boardwalk, bayside and harbor areas of Ocean City during the “Artists Paint OC” weekend Aug. 7-10 – will be on exhibit and for sale at the Arts Center.
On Saturday, Aug. 9, a special reception, award presentation, and wet paint art show and sale will take place from 6-8 p.m.
On Sunday, Aug. 10, there will be a “Quick Draw” competition at 9 a.m. with judging and “Off the Easel” art show and sale at 11 a.m. at South Division St. and the Boardwalk.
For more information, contact the Art League at 410-524-9433 or visit www.ArtLeagueofOceanCity.org
Funding for public programs and exhibits by the Art League of Ocean City at the Ocean City Center for the Arts is provided, in part, by the Worcester County Arts Council, Maryland State Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, organizations dedicated to cultivating a vibrant cultural community where the arts thrive.
