Raritan Valley Arts Association
Newsletter

RARITAN VALLEY ARTS ASSOCIATION est. 1939

Snowflake Greetings!

Snow flakes decorate tree branches, birds crowd round the feeders, deer hope for apples, fishes are sluggish, and you are thinking about RVAA and the great demos. We all got a fresh and direct infusion from our inspiring demonstrator, Jinnie May, in November. Coming up-and you'll even brave the snow for this, ANDREA GIANCHIGLIA ( agillustration.com ), an award-winning artist in several media, and instructor at the Center for Contemporary Art (formerly Somerset Art) and NJ Visual Art Center (formerly Summit Art) will demonstrate for us January 24th , 7:30 pm at the Somerset County/Bridgewater Library. Working from a photograph, Andrea will create an animal portrait in oil paints. She will start with a blank canvas and bring the work of art through the sketch stage, and into the color stage using values, temperature, color and form. She will describe why she uses the particular brush or color she uses while she paints, and how to achieve a suggestion of fur with directional brushstrokes. Within the demo time, you will see a complete work of art created from beginning to end. Her methods can be applied to any medium, so you will be able to apply the lesson to a medium you work in, even if you do not use oils. Do come, learn, and be entertained! Our thanks go to Judy Hummer and Rita Gorky who will provide our hospitality.

Thanks to Doug Axmann for masterminding our annual Holiday Dinner December 6th. We all enjoyed the camaraderie, the delicious meal (and ginormous, delectable salad bar), our gift exchange, and stories by Eleanor DeMott and your editor. We could not have been in a more holiday mood than on that night. If you missed it, try to remember to put the first Monday in December on your calendar for next year. And thanks again, Doug! We had a ball!

Our Holiday Show and Sale was a lovely one, indeed. Ten members exhibited, less than other years, but it worked out fine, as we had less space for our exhibit! Your editor looked at last year's receipts-December 2009-which was our lowest yet--$198.

For reference, we used to earn about $1000. Our economy is still not great, so RVAA should be pleased that this year's show took in $764, more than three times what we did last year. Not terrific, but all things considered, decidedly better. Of course the sale of one of Bill Gilbert's watercolors for $300. definitely helped! My thanks to Mary Creasy who helped me set up, and to our Treasurer Barbara Fiorentino, who will be getting the checks ready.

Trinity United Church "Artist of the Month" Series - RVAA member Kit Bebbington has been chairing this series of successful shows at the church. Many RVAA members have been "Artist of the Month", including Christa Holz, Linda Lam, Nancy Peer, Bill and Catherine Gilbert, Sonia Weir, Sylva Glesmann, and Kay Hurd. In 2011 Kit tells us that January and July through December are open. Please phone Kit at 732/356-3730 if you are interested in exhibiting.

Also-- Call for Exhibitors Megyn Craine of the Dessert Plate Bakery and Café invites us to exhibit at their establishment in Somerville (34 East Main Street). This is where Santa's helpers make all those great cookies they handed out (at the Somerville tree lighting) to you last year! Megyn Craine has wall space where (select) RVAA artists can display their stuff. Please phone her at 908/722-9881. You can mention you heard about it from Amy Erdman of the Raritan Valley Arts Association. Recently Bob Erdman, member Amy Erdman's husband, has had an excellent photography exhibit up there. (Editor's note: do check out their delightful website www.thedessertplate.com

Heads up! In March and April RVAA will have to opportunity to exhibit at the lovely, fairly new facility up near Bernardsville-the Senior Wellness Center, with a large exhibit area. We do need a coordinator/chairperson for that. Please volunteer by phoning our President Linda Arnold at 908/647-3610. Our exhibit at the Shimon and Sara Birnbaum Jewish Community Center ( www.ssbjcc.org) on Talamini Road in Bridgewater will now be in June. There is room for 30 large or 40 mixed large and small works. Your editor will coordinate that.

Our prayers and sympathy go out to RVAA member Mary Creasy who recently lost her mother. You all know Mary and her wonderful art work, in particular the animals who live for us in her work. And of course Mary has helped with the Holiday Show and others, as well.

MEMBERS IN THE NEWS

LINDA ARNOLD was just in the special inaugural show at the Farmstead Arts Center in Basking Ridge and just finished the last two (of 36) paintings, historical buildings and scenes, for the Millington Savings Bank.

ELSA HERRMANN participated in an Art Auction at the Tewksbury Inn, Oldwick New Jersey, to raise funds for the preservation of the Hill and Dale Preserve in Oldwick, comprising a lovely old barn (the subject of Elsa's painting) situated on 160 acres of woods and fields. Her painting brought $1100., which pleased her greatly, as she was able to give back to Oldwick some measure of the joy she herself had had while living there and painting its many vistas for nearly 30 years. Elsa also received a merit award in the NJ-AAPL Open State Juried Exhibition of Representational Art for her watercolor "Yellow Classic", which ran through December 12th.

JOAN MCKINNEY is in a group exhibit in Newton, N.J. as a member of a group entitled The Sussex County Art and Heritage Council.

DIANA PATTON has a show up now (the temple pushed it ahead from December) at the Shimon and Sara Birnbaum Jewish Community Center, 775 Talamini Road, in Bridgewater. You might want to check it out since our show will be there in June. Patton also has 13 works at the Manville Library (group show-Andrea Gianchiglia is in it too) for the show benefiting the Somerset Regional Animal Center in Bridgewater.

Please, RVAA members, do snail mail or email me your news. I will be writing the February Newsletter a bit early-Feb. 1st or 2nd, and I'd appreciate YOUR NEWS.

Previous Newsletters

Click on the newsletter you want to view.