During the month of September, The Artists’ Gallery will feature new paintings by their exhibiting artist, Rhonda Ford. A native of Howard County, Rhonda grew up within a family that loved to garden and had a large greenhouse where they nurtured close to a thousand orchids. Her family belonged to the National Capital Orchid Society, based in the National Arboretum outside of Washington, D.C. Over the years, Rhonda grew to love the process of gardening and understood that “gardening uses similar aesthetics to painting because you are creating a composition with color and shapes.” For the past two years, she has participated in the Lower Shore Land Trust Pollinator Garden Tour plein air event. During this time, she has enjoyed “seeing various gardens and creating a painting celebrating the pollinators we all need for the future.”
As an artist, Rhonda has continued to draw and paint for as long as she can remember. In school, the art room was her favorite place, and she followed that passion with a degree in Fine Arts at the University of Maryland at College Park. Following college, she moved to Annapolis and worked at The Middleton Gallery of Art and then Garfinckel’s Department Store as their Visual Merchandising Manager. Following that time, she worked in the marine industry designing and fabricating upholstery for sailboats for thirty years. During that time, she met her husband and raised a family together. Forty years later, she moved to the Eastern Shore and returned to her love of painting. Easton and the surrounding towns have provided a perfect environment for her renewed pursuit. In July, 2020, Rhonda became an exhibitor with The Artists’ Gallery and is a member of the St. Michael’s Art League, The Academy Art Museum in Easton, The Working Artists’ Forum and the Dorchester Center for the Arts. Over the years, Rhonda has juried into the Fine Arts in Oxford Show and Local Color at the Tidewater Inn in Easton. Rhonda continues to enjoy painting with the Plein Air Painters of the Chesapeake Bay and recently painted in the Olmsted Plein Air Event in Atlanta, GA and Plein Air Easton 2024. Three of her paintings in her current show, “Bloom”, were done in the Olmstead event in Atlanta.
The Artists’ Gallery invites the public to their opening reception for Rhonda Ford from 5-7:30 p.m. on First Friday, September 6th for light refreshments and to meet the artist. The Artists’ Gallery is located at 239 High Street in Chestertown and is open Tuesday-Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and on Sundays from 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. For more information about The Artists’ Gallery, please visit www.theartistsgalleryctown.com or call the gallery at 410-778-2425.
Lead image is “Retirement Center” by Rhonda Ford
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