By Susan Brown

Come and take a look at our colorful work at Glenview Mansion from March 1 through March 27th. A number of the paintings in this exhibition express color found on vacations, other places, or other ways of seeing. In other words, they display scenes of travel and varied reactions to that travel. 

The color of light in a different country impressed John MacArthur and Helen Wood. For John, the light in France shown there on the lavender fields is very different from light on this continent even in lavender fields. He thinks it is because of a violet tone in the light there. Helen visited Kruger National Park in South Africa at the end of winter, just before spring. She was struck by the stark contrast of the winter trees against the clear sky particularly in the “golden hour”, that time just before sunset, the sky just lightly pink. It seemed to her as though the African trees were glowing. In contrast, Laura Aikman thought less about the actual color of the scene she found in Spain. She looks for places that stand out and Ronda, Spain, was both awe inspiring and terrifying due to the fact that it is perched on the side of sheer cliffs. Recently, she has been experimenting with exaggerating color and this scene lent itself to that process, a process she enjoyed very much.

Robert Shiao, Susan Fitch Brown and Gale Marcus painted scenes fromthe United States. Robert put together an image of Red Rock near Sedona, loving the beautiful red of that area and paired it with some cacti found in Tucson, Arizona. He liked the interplay of green and red, the bright colors. Susan painted from her nephew's photo taken on a hike in Idaho. She chose the photo because of its vivid and varied colors. The picture's beautifully vivid sunset set against the rugged mountains was an enjoyable challenge to paint. Gale had been looking for old cars to paint and found hers in Key West, a blue truck against the orange of an old Spanish style church. The color contrast was also important to her.

Pauline Rakis traveled - in her "A Walk in the Woods" - in a different way. She began with some green which reminded her of the leaves of a tree, then added purple which reminded her of orchids. So she decided she was painting a scene in a tropical woods, maybe Florida or south of the Border, and then added orange which seemed to be a path through the woods. In this case, her travel was in her imagination, a journey she much enjoyed. 

Glenview Mansion is just off Baltimore Road between First Street and Twinbrook Parkway, and next to the F Scott Fitzgerald Theater.

The opening reception is Sunday, March 1, from 1:30pm to 3:30pm. 

If you are interested in purchasing artwork from the gallery, please contact Betty Wisda at bwisda@rockvillemd.gov or 240-314-8681.