Raritan Valley Arts Association
Newsletter

RARITAN VALLEY ARTS ASSOCIATION est. 1939

Lion and Lamb Greetings!

And March really did come in like a lion with our snowstorm, but as I write this, March is looking lamb-ish. Nancy Ori gave a most interesting talk and slide show at our last meeting, showing us new ways to use photographs, with pastel and watercolor on inkjet paper. Her website is www.nancyoriphotography.com/.

Our demonstrator for March will be Francesca Azzara and she will demonstrate encaustic painting and show us some of her work. This is a medium few of us are familiar with and will prove very interesting. "Encaustic paints are a mixture of beeswax and pigment. An ancient medium, invented by the early Greeks, it pre-dates oil painting. It was rediscovered by Jasper Johns and today enjoys new popularity amongst contemporary artists." "The paints are heated on a hot palette to liquefy them and worked with a heat gun and brush. Although the paint 'dries' instantly, this challenging yet forgiving medium allows the artist to layer the paints, collage and etch into the wax. A variety of techniques are used to create unique and varied surfaces that cannot be duplicated with any other medium." Intrigued? You should be! Francesca Azzara, a leading encaustic painter in NJ, is the recipient of several grants and numerous awards. Come Monday night, 7:30 pm, March 30th at the Somerset County Library. Our thanks to President Linda Arnold for once again giving us a good program, and thanks ahead to Lib Ryman who will be doing our hospitality for the meeting. Incidentally, Francesca's website is www.FrancescaAzzara.com.

Once again it's time for the annual BERNARDSVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY Juried Art Show, which will run April 1-30, with an Opening Reception on Saturday, April 4th, from 2-4 pm. Oil, pastel, watercolor, and acrylic paintings, framed and wired will be accepted. Delivery at the library will be Tuesday, March 31st, from 10-12 am. For rules and an application form you can go to www.bernardsvillelibrary.org/display.htm or call Kathleen Palmer, the Volunteer Art Coordinator for the library at 908/963-0365.

You don't want to forget our THE BIG APPLE BUS TRIP our chairwoman Mary Ann Vaccaro has arranged the trip for Saturday, April 18th, leaving from the Somerset County Library about 8:30-8:45 am. The cost will be $35.(children are half-price) for a comfortable bus with a restroom. We will be delivered to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and then to the American Watercolor Society Show at the Salmagundi Club (plus the Forbes Museum across the street, which is free and open until 4 pm). We're back at the Somerset County Library about 6 pm. Bring friends! Bring family! Bring friends and family! Even if we get 20 people, the club will have to contribute $200. All that art and all that arty camaraderie, and some snacks on the way home for $35. Please mail your check to Mary Ann Vaccaro, 105 Brokaw Court, Bridgewater, NJ 08807. For further info you can call Mary Ann at 908/704-1685. Mary Ann must have your reservation and $ ASAP or the trip will have to be cancelled.

If you want a nearby museum trip, you can go to the Morris Museum, 6 Normandy Heights Road, Morristown, to the current exhibit "Sordid and Sacred: The Beggars in Rembrandt's Etchings" on view until March 22 in their Hedley Gallery. It's not often we get Rembrandt so nearby! Quoting from the THE NEW YORK TIMES review about "Beggars Receiving Alms", Rembrandt "takes paint to depict these people more as unfortunate than as undesirable. Rembrandt was a great artist, and he also had a great heart." Also on exhibit until April 11th, "Breaking Through: The Abstract Expressionism of Grace Hartigan." There are plenty of other permanent exhibits, from old dolls and toys, to antique rooms, to rock collections, and of course the electric display, also permanent, "Musical Machines and Living Dolls: Mechanical Musical Instruments and Automata from The Murtogh D. Guinness Collection." (editor's note: this large exhibition is truly fascinating with moving figures and scenes and music). Please go to www.morrismuseum.org for more information and pictures.

In New Brunswick, the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Museum (Rutgers campus-71 Hamilton St, at George St) has an exhibit by NAWA, the National Association of Women Artists, which celebrates its 120th Anniversary this year. The exhibition includes work by about 80 artists, ranging from the last decade of the 19th century to the present and includes such artists as Dorothy Dehner, Louise Nevelson, Faith Ringgold, and others. A particularly exciting opportunity occurs Sunday, March 29th at the Museum when the acclaimed author/ illustrator Uri Shulevitz will speak at 2 pm. His book WRITING WITH PICTURES is known to anyone who's ever thought of writing and illustrating picture books. His newest bestseller picture book is HOW I LEARNED GEOGRAPHY and Uri will discuss the creation of this extraordinary book and the autobiographical story behind it. You may go to www.zimmerlimuseum.rutgers.edu for more info on the museum.

The juried show of the Garden State Watercolor Society will be held from March 29th through April 20th at the Prallsville Mills, Stockton, Rte 29. The show promises to be a large and varied one and the site is particularly interesting as Prallsville Mills is part of the Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park and is on the National Register of Historic Places. The area has become a place of cultural events with widespread visitor attraction. For more info, please go to www.gardenstatewatercolorsociety.org .

Please don't forget our own website-if people ask about the Raritan Valley Arts Association, just point them to www.raritanvalleyarts.org We have a gallery of our own members' art, events, history, and the newsletters, both current and past, on it.

MEMBER NEWS

Alas and alack... member news is lacking....and yet your editor knows that things are happening out there. So here's your challenge-simply email or write about your current projects-for example your editor knows Doug Axmann is working on innovative art works for a book of his own, Linda Arnold is doing a series of "portraits" of historic schoolhouses for the Millington Savings Bank, and your editor is working on several children's stories and an early chapter book. What are you working on? You don't have to let us know about things already done; inquiring minds want to know what you are working on now, what you are interested in. DO TELL! Of course we are also interested in your awards, shows, etc.

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