Ellen Rice Gallery to host major debut Oct. 8-9
An open house celebrating the beginning of fall and a new painting, Freedom, by well-known Delaware artist Ellen Rice will take place this Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 8-9, at the Ellen Rice Gallery in Ocean View.
The festivities will kick off with the long-awaited debut in print of "Freedom," Rice’s fourth Strength of Woman Series painting, and will offer a variety of upbeat music and seasonal refreshments like freshly pressed apple cider and fresh baked apple delicacies from Bridgeville’s TS Smith & Son, pumpkin donuts and apple wine both days.
Rice will offer prints of Freedom at special debut prices beginning at 10 a.m.Saturday.
“Freedom was inspired by an image that came to my thought in prayer one morning after watching victims of a natural disaster on television,” said Rice. “They had lost their home, everything material, but they were unperturbed, almost joyous. There was a sense of freedom about them. ‘We have what’s important,’ they said. 'We’re alive. All the other things are just stuff.' "
Rice will be showing other new paintings this weekend, among them “Surf’s Up,” an oil of a surfer riding a very large wave in Bethany Beach after a major storm; "Symphony in Pinks and Blues," a serene oil of the shore’s edge at dusk; and "Late Afternoon Walk," a small oil capturing the late afternoon sunlight reflected on waves and footprints in the sand.
Rice will be on hand 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 8, and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 9, to chat with patrons and sign prints.
The Ellen Rice Gallery is located at 103 Atlantic Ave. (Route 26), 2.2 miles west of the Bethany Beach totem pole in the west end of the old Country Wicker building, just west of Charlie K’s Barbeque.
Ellen Rice has been painting the people, places and wildlife of the Delmarva Peninsula since the early 1960s. Her paintings, prints and writings are found in private homes and corporate and government collections. Her work has been been published in numerous publications, including "Smithsonian" magazine.
One of her works, "Treasure Beaches of the Mid-Atlantic," was chosen to represent Delaware on QVC’s Quest for America’s Best and was featured as part of a set design for a television show several years ago. An Easter egg she designed to represent Delaware is in the permanent collection of the White House.
For more information go to www.ellenrice.com.
In 2006, the gallery, which sells Rice’s work and American artisan made gifts and décor, was named a national NICHE Magazine Top Retailer Award Finalist. The same year, Delaware Beach Life Magazine named Rice “one of the shore’s top 10 most collectible artists.”
Everyone is invited to enjoy the gallery’s Columbus Day weekend festivities, meet the artist and “perhaps start shopping for the holidays in a tax-free way of supporting American artists.”
Freedom, Ellen Rice’s newest Strength of Woman Series painting, will be debuted in print during an open house festivities celebrating fine art and the beginning of fall this Saturday at the Ellen Rice Gallery.
Other images available, horizontal:
Symphony in Pinks and Blues is one of Rice’s new paintings on exhibit this weekend at The Ellen Rice Gallery.
In Surf’s Up Ellen Rice captures in oils a local surfer riding a large wave in Bethany Beach after a major summer storm. The painting will be available in print at the Ellen Rice Gallery on Thanksgiving weekend.
