The photography of local Kent County artists, Cindy Brittain and Richard Hall will be featured in the Studio Gallery of the Chestertown Arts League in later March and April. They will be joined in the Main Gallery by the popular Benedictine School Photography Show. There will be an opening reception on Friday April 1 5-8pm for both shows.
Brittain and Hall are long-time amateur photographers who have recently begun to show their work in galleries. The show will include examples of their work over a wide range of subjects. On display will be several of Brittain’s riverscapes, whimsical studies of sea creatures , images of plant life from our Mid-Atlantic region, as well as other images evoking a spiritual and melancholic mood. Hall’s work will include his more recent work shot mainly on the upper shore and representative im ages from the 1970’s on. Subjects will include architectural details with emphasis on doors and windows, landscape and water views and compositions with animal and human subjects.
Cindy Brittain grew up all over the East Coast, settling in Baltimore in the 60’s. She has always loved traveling, and began to document her vagabond life with a Kodak Instamatic Camera at the age of 10. Brittain has held a wide variety of jobs in and out of America, including translating, commercial shrimping, sword fishing, sailing on Tall Ships, as well as baking, catering and teaching. Brittain’s life-long adventures are reflected in a variety of themes and subjects in her photography, including cultural diversity, the sea, flora and fauna, as well as her love of food. Brittain began making inspirational art cards with her photographs and calligraphy, which later transformed into larger framed pieces.
The Chestertown Arts League has been Brittain’s first venue for exhibiting her art. She has also participated in Art in the Park, and has shown her work at Artworks and the Main Street Gallery in Cambridge, MD. In 2010, she won an Award of Excellence in CAL’s Open Juried Art Exhibit for an atmospheric image of strollers in Vancouver – this image will be in her current show. Brittain currently lives in Chestertown in the little Purple Cottage, teaching ESL for Chesapeake College and catering with Occasions.
Hall has been an amateur photographer since the early 70’s, and began showing his work in the Fall of 2007. He has shown widely in galleries and other venues on the upper Eastern Shore and has been a regular participant at shows at Artworks and the Arts League in Chestertown, from time to time receiving ribbons for his entries in juried and judged shows. His work can be currently seen at those two venues and at the Adkins Arboretum Juried Art Competition. Hall is hard-pressed to claim a unifying theme for his photography – he loves doors, other architectural detail, interesting scenes in nature and amongst the works of man and many other subjects. Not really a wildlife or human portraitist, he is wont to use wildlife and humans as elements in his compositions. A unifying theme for his work might be his desire to create well-composed images with interesting values in light and color and hopefully with a “story” or mood. Hall has also been an active volunteer and leader with the Chestertown Arts League and Chester River Artworks. He is currently president of the Arts League. In his previous life before retirement he was on the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh in Electrical and Computer Engineering.
The show will run March 24 through April 24, 2011 with an opening reception on Friday April 1 from 5-8pm – the artists will be introduced at 6 pm that evening and available for questions and discussion throughout most of the reception. The venue for the show is the Studio Gallery of the Chestertown Arts League at 312 Cannon Street in downtown Chestertown. The show will run concurrently with the popular Benedictine School Photography Show which will be mounted in CAL’s Main Gallery. The Benedictine students under the direction of teacher Lorraine Slama have always presented a lively and creative show. CAL’s new regular gallery hours are: Wednesday, Thurday, Friday Noon – 3pm and Saturday 10am – 4pm. For questions on either show contact Cindy Brittain ([email protected]) or Rich Hall at 410-928-5012 or [email protected]. For questions on CAL’s 2011 Exhibitions schedule contact Rich Hall.
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