It used to be called “Our Beautiful Ocean.”
Now, five years in, the title of Gallery 14’s annual juried show is “Our Beautiful Waters,” says gallery partner Dorothy Napp Schindel, who has organized the exhibition “practically since its inception.”
The exhibition not only showcases the talents of the mainly regional artists who enter it; 20 percent of sales from the show is donated to a local charity. For the past three years the Environmental Learning Center has been the recipient of the gallery’s generosity.
The show is a lot of work to organize, says Schindel, but for her and the eight other artist partners of Gallery 14, the results are worth the trouble.
“The reason we do the show is to engage the community, and to give back to the community in two ways,” Schindel says.
She explains that the exhibition is a chance for artists who have seldom or never shown their work in a commercial gallery to shine for a month in Gallery 14’s prime downtown location. Just as important, she adds, the show gives the gallery’s artist partners the opportunity to raise money for worthy causes.
“The environment is on top of our list,” says Schindel. “That’s why we have been donating to environmental organizations for so many years now.”
Back when “Our Beautiful Waters” began, the beneficiary of the fundraiser was Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute. The name of the show was then “Our Beautiful Ocean.”
“We changed the name to be inclusive, when we started to work with ELC – they are so much about the lagoon and the rivers,” says Schindel.
Expanding the show’s theme to include the waters of Florida’s lakes, rivers, and wetlands has elicited an enthusiastic response from artists. This year there were more than 100 entries for the exhibition, compared to around 65 last year. The current exhibition boasts 81 artworks selected from 47 artists, plus four non-juried photographs on the subject of water by the ELC’s director, Molly Steinwald.
The initial jurying of entries was done by Gallery 14’s partner artists; the show’s awards were judged by three area artists.
“It’s a lot easier to jury when you have many more pieces coming in,” says Schindel.
“It’s difficult, too, because we want to display as many pieces as possible to have as many sales as possible, to raise as much money as possible. But we also want to keep it a juried show.”
“Our Beautiful Waters” is installed on the gallery’s entrance wall in its central guest artist gallery, and in the back gallery. The gallery’s north, south and west corridors are reserved for the work of Gallery 14’s partners and its represented artists, who do not enter the competition.
Schindel estimates 25 per cent of the total entries were held out of the show; a number of these were designated by the partners as “second-tier” works. Held in reserve the gallery’s storage room, they are hung as space becomes available after the sale of the works on the walls.
After the jurying is done and the artworks are hung (but before they are identified by wall labels) the show’s judges meet to select prize winners.
A different group of judges is selected for each year’s show. Schindel says she strives to find three people with varying points of view to perform the task, with the intention of getting the broadest and least-biased outcome in the awarding of prizes. This year’s judges were contemporary artist Mary Segal of Sebastian; Rita Ziegler, a marine painter from Vero Beach, and Brett Pigon, a realistic landscape and portrait painter from Grant.
Schindel says the criteria the judges use in awarding prizes are creativity, adherence to the theme, technical proficiency and presentation.
Ribbons for Best of Show and first, second and third places were awarded, as well as two ELC awards, a Gallery 14 Partners’ Choice Award, and six honorable mentions. Ribbon winners also received gift cards and merchandise donated by local restaurants and boutiques.
Best of Show went to Laura Bohn of Deland for her acrylic painting “Alexander Springs,” an underwater scene featuring a submerged forest of vegetation and a distant foraging manatee. Scott Woodward of Fort Pierce garnered First Place for his oil “The Florida Everglades,” a view reminiscent of the work of A.E. Backus, with its palm hammock floating on a sea of saw grass under a cumulus-filled sky.
Second Place went to Hobe Sound’s Ken Dara for his Gyotaku (Japanese fish print), “Snook in the Mangroves,” while Third Place was garnered by Liduine Bekman, a recent transplant to Port St. Lucie from Houston, Texas. Her watercolor “Feeding and Breeding” is a fanciful undersea glimpse of two lobsters doing what comes naturally.
The Gallery 14 Choice Award was won by Jo Zaza of Vero Beach for her digitally enhanced photo, “Dimensions of Time.” It features a close-up of a red-lipped beach babe whose oversize sunglasses reflect twin images of a male beach walker who has paused to gaze at an attractive woman striding through the surf. “I love the boldness of it and the creativity of it,” Schindel enthuses, adding that that the partners’ selection of the photograph for the Gallery 14 award was unanimous.
The ELC Choice Award was presented to Anna Ross-Cook of Vero Beach for her egg tempera painting “A Walk.”
The exquisitely detailed painting shows the backs of two couples strolling an oceanfront sidewalk. Hand in hand, an elderly man and woman are seen in the foreground; a young man with an aged woman on his arm precede them. The ocean with whitecaps in the distance at left is complimented by a group of wind-tossed palms to the right. The day looks perfect for a winter amble in Florida – cool enough for a jacket, brisk enough to enliven the spirit, sunny enough to cheer the soul.
Schindel says the picture addresses the ELC’s new mission: “to educate, inspire and empower all people – including those with minimal access to nature – to be active stewards of the environment and their own well-being.”
“Nature is for everybody,” Schindel adds. “And that’s what they are trying to say to the community.”
“Our Beautiful Waters’ is on view at Gallery 14 through Dec. 30.
