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Wildlife, secrets, forests and mystery greeted guests as the Rehoboth Art League opened its 70th season with exhibits by four artists whose works are characterized by excellence: Kevin Fleming, Nancy Linden, Bruce Garrity and Hylarie McMahon.
“The combined exhibits are a great example of everything that is possible in this region,” said Interim Executive Director Lee Mills.
“Each of the artists has achieved a level of excellence in their work that complements the work of the others.”
Fleming’s wildlife
Mills said the art league jumped at the opportunity to present the first exhibit of Fleming’s pre-publication photographs to be included in his new book, “Wild Delaware,” scheduled for release in November.
Meeting with guests in the Homestead Gallery where the exhibit is on display, Fleming said it is his intent to capture the incredible beauty of Delaware’s wildlife and wild places. The photographs on display left guests no doubt that he is achieving his goal.
“Nice eye, Kevin; nice eye,” said artisan Deb Appleby as she admired Fleming’s work. “Anybody can take a photograph but it’s capturing that moment that is the true challenge. He captures the moment.”
A Delaware native residing in Lewes, Fleming’s work is internationally known and respected. Each Tuesday edition of the Cape Gazette features one of Fleming’s new photographs for “Wild Delaware.”
Linden’s secrets
Haunting and haunted describe the images exhibited by Baltimore artist Linden in her show, “Timeline” on display in the Corkran Gallery. The images are of people appearing to reveal secrets they may not even know they hold.
One of Linden’s two large pieces, “Summer Dresses,” depicts her mother and her aunts. Her mother is depicted on the left, the only character openly smiling. The first of Linden’s aunts to develop Alzheimer’s disease appears in the background, her face turned and almost completely in shadow.
“It’s as if, in turning away, she realized she was already leaving the picture,” Linden said of the small photograph upon which she based her drawing.
Another large mixed media work on canvas, wood and tarpaper shows farmers evicted from their land during the Great Depression.
It is titled “Six Displaced Tenant Farmers (after Dorthea Lange)” and faces the drawing of the women from across the gallery.
“This is the first time I’ve been able to show these two pieces together,” said Linden.
Mills said the art league was delighted to have been able to give Linden and Garrity the unique opportunity to show their larger works, including some that had never before been displayed.
Garrity’s forests
Garrity’s exhibit of oil paintings in the Tubbs Gallery, “As Safe As Yesterday Is,” reveals the artist’s great skill painting in the open air and developing studio works. A respected Rehoboth Art League instructor, Garrity judged the first Rehoboth Beach Paint Out plein air painting competition in 2006.
Now, Garrity said, he finds himself focusing on figures and still lifes. Many works are created on site, in the woods, and then completed in studio where they become more constructed, he said.
“It’s all about being in the woods,” Garrity said, standing before an image of a forest interior.
All of the forest interiors call for scale, Garrity added. That scale appears to reflect the grandeur of the forest as seen in the memories of a man who was once a boy growing up in Alaska and the imaginings it engendered.
McMahon’s mysteries
Hylarie McMahon is as intense as her oil paintings exhibited under the name dis/order in the Ventures Gallery. Based on the elements of earth, air, fire and water and juxtaposed with abstract spatial dimensions, her works combine elements of fine art, architecture, craft, mathematics and science.
“I use the grid to bring together contradictory elements in a coherent way. I make use of Bauhaus design theory as part of my vocabulary,” said McMahon, adding that she often completes and exhibits works in quartets, like the seasons, and that a series may become open-ended or even be redone. Two series on display are “Sketches for a World View” presenting the four elements of earth, air, fire and water, each with a contradictory symbol; and the “Mathematica Obsoleta” series presenting time-honored mathematical concepts that McMahon said no longer seem relevant.
The exhibitions will be on display through Sunday, June 1, at the Rehoboth Art League Henlopen Acres site. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. through 4 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and noon to 4 p.m. on Sundays. More information is available by calling 227-8408. Additional information is available online regarding Nancy Linden at www.nancylinden.com and regarding Kevin Fleming at www.wilddelaware.com.
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