Centered on the back wall of the Charles H. Davis Gallery within the Mystic Arts Center hangs Sherrie Parenteau’s first-prize winner, a 6- by 4-foot untitled portrait, inviting gallery viewers into a world of three young schoolchildren.
Anticipating graduation from the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts in 2009, Parenteau, a Plainfield resident, confirmed that the painting is a contemporary commentary and interpretation of John Singer Sargent’s noted portrait, The Daughters of Edward Boit.
This painting is among many others within the Davis Gallery that were selected to be part of the center’s 52nd regional show, a juried exhibition featuring works in various media by more than 80 artists from the southeastern Connecticut area.
Director of Development and Public Relations Brandy Kolmer said more than 300 pieces of art were submitted for the show and a little more than 100 were accepted.
Standouts include Karin O. Bastidas’ watercolor, Early Summer, featuring colorful tones in its portrayal of flowers and fruit set on a table. Edward Bissell’s timeless Sepia Tree received the Otto E. Liebig Photography Award. Jillian Barber’s colorful ceramic Cat Bird sits among other crafts that were accepted into the show.
Don’t Be Scared, It’s Only Street Art received the People’s Choice Award as it conveys two dark shadows walking into the night in black and white. Kolmer said this was the first year that the Mystic Arts Center created a People’s Choice Award, allowing opening night attendees the chance to select their favorite piece.
Artist and special event coordinator of the center Gretchen Higgins’ abstract mixed media piece, Sculling Sideways, also was selected to join the show, combining a variety of vivid colors. She said the idea for the piece came from a destroyed photo she found of herself rowing. After enlarging the photo and placing it on vellum, she said she painted over the photo and made a unique piece of art that could—and should—be viewed from any angle.
Portraits by Jan Mercer
On the other side of the center in the Schuster Gallery along the Mystic River hangs the realistic work and portraits of Stonington resident Jan Mercer.
“People themselves inspire me,” she explained. “Generally I prefer to paint people I know as portraits…I prefer to know them well.”
After a hiatus, Mercer returned to her artwork five years ago. Obtaining a degree at the School of Visual Arts in New York in Fine Art and Printmaking, Mercer has shown her work in more than 15 exhibitions since she’s been back on the art scene and feels a sense of accomplishment when completing her portraits.
She also draws people she doesn’t know, but she doesn’t refer to them as portraits. She gave an example, pointing to her oil painting of a talking couple called Conversation (Trees). She said even though she doesn’t know them, she tries to capture something that everyone can relate to.
“For me, it feels like the direction I want to go toward,” she added.
She later explained that the process of creating an oil painting can be tedious.
“When you put one layer of paint down, when you’re ready to paint on it tomorrow, you can’t necessarily paint on it because it’s still wet,” she said.
She said she finds herself putting many of her paintings aside to wait for them to dry, even when she wants to work on them; waiting for the paint to dry can make the process of completing a painting even longer.
“It can be very difficult and for that reason, I usually work on two or three paintings all at the same time,” she noted.
She found Tom, a portrait of a man walking as he looks behind him with fidgeting hands, the hardest to finish within her recent series of portraits.
“I painted it and then reworked the whole painting at a later date,” she said, admitting that she didn’t like the darkness of the original painting. She later added brighter colors to lighten its background.
She said standing back from her work made her realize how she hoped viewers reacted to her portraits of emotions.
“I would like people to feel compelled to really look at the faces, feel more interested in the people in the paintings, and want to take a good look at the paintings,” she said. “If someone feels like the painting stops them for more than a couple seconds and they want to look at the painting a little more, that would be a compliment to me.”
Prize Winners
First Prize: Sherrie Parenteau
Second Prize: Ken Steinkamp
Third Prize: Pamela Zagarenski
Otto E. Liebig Photography Award: Edward Bissell
Mary Barthelson Pastel Award: Jeanette Morse
Edith Cowles Watercolor Award: Peter Hussey
Honorable Mentions
Janet Shafner
Alan Wynne
Roger Beers
Peter Tytla
Katherine Forest Crafts Foundation Awards: Terry Goberis
Award for Excellence in Ceramics: Jillian Barber
Louise Forest Gibson Prize: Craig Nelson
Mabel Kingsbury Fentress Prize: Judith Laffey
Alice Clark Hubbard Prize: Beverly Pryor
Joseph Gaultieri Prize: Marion O’ Connell