Charles County Arts Alliance Announces March 2007 Art Exhibits

The following visual artists will have their artwork on display in the specified locations throughout the month of March.

SmithBarney Gallery
3825 Leonardtown Road, Suite 6, Waldorf, MD
Hours: Monday – Friday from 9:00 am – 5:00 pm

The Corner Studio is an art studio located south of La Plata in the home of Betty Carney, a retired art teacher from the Charles County Board of Education. On Wednesdays, the studio is usually filled with artists working on watercolor projects. Betty graciously opens her home to local artists and in December offered them a workshop on “Batik Watercolors.” The artists from the Corner Studio represented in this exhibit are: Jane Bush, Betty Carney, Karla Costello, Ann Maggi, Connie Miller, Betty Musial, Sandy Rohde, and Pat Swann. To learn more about the Corner Studio, or to purchase one of the paintings, please visit www.cornerstudioartworks.com.

Richard Clark Senior Center Gallery
(1210 Charles St., La Plata, MD)
Monday – Friday (9:00 am – 4:00 pm)

Lucretia Dewey Tanner is an artist who paints with strong and vibrant colors. Her medium is acrylic and her subject matter is eclectic, ranging from flowers, landscapes, people and abstracts. None are executed traditionally.

Lucretia is a member of the Southern Maryland Art League and has exhibited her paintings throughout the Southern Maryland area. Her works are in private Collections from Connecticut to Florida as well as Colorado. For several years, she has donated paintings to the annual Cerebral Palsy fund raiser and to the Baden Library.

Lucretia and her husband have traveled extensively and have visited all the major art museums of the world, which have influenced her passion for art. They live on a Christmas tree farm in Prince George’s County and also have a farm in Charles County.

CCAA Gallery at the United Way
(10250 La Plata Rd., La Plata, MD)
Monday – Friday (9:00 am – 4:00 pm)

Jane Doutt Bush has been drawing and thinking creatively since she was a little girl. Inspired by education, travel, color and design, Jane is experienced in many media, but for the past several years has enjoyed the challenge of watercolors. With a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts from the University of Maryland, training at the Commercial Arts School in Nice, France, Art Therapy classes and workshops at the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, Virginia, Jane is now ready to exhibit her work. Jane currently attends workshops at The Corner Studio in La Plata, Maryland, and is active in the Charles County Arts Alliance. Her strength is in drawing, but she loves working with oil, pastels, and watercolors.

County Commissioners’ Gallery
(200 Baltimore St., La Plata, MD)
Monday – Friday (9:00 am – 4:00 pm)

Rita Hall says, “Creativity is my very essence. I love to draw and create things. I learned to draw and paint as a small child, watching a family friend paint beautiful pictures in oils. The things I create are an expression of a mood or feeling at a given point in time or something I saw that really spoke to me.”

All her life Rita has been involved in crafts of every type. She sews, crochets, crafts leather, does calligraphy, sculpts, molds, carves, draws and paints. If it is possible to make something she will try. As a child she used crayons and pencils, moved to chalk and watercolors as a teen, and later, as an adult, she progressed to acrylics and then oils. “Oils are such a fantastic medium. I can paint with brushes, palette knives and even my fingers to achieve the results I desire. Watercolor cannot compare -- neither can pastels. The oils are so forgiving. If I make a mistake or do not like the result, it is much easier to change.”

Old trees and old buildings such as barns and farmhouses are things she loves to paint because they really have character. She also paints birds, animals, flowers and still-life pictures. Her work is traditional and very detailed. Rita won an award as the “Most Outstanding Art Student” in high school, had a work hung in the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and had one of her paintings reproduced on the cover of a book, yet she has never received any formal training in Art.

Born in Washington, D.C., Rita has lived in Maryland most of her life. “I joined the Charles County Arts Alliance as a way to get to know other artists and to get my work out to the public. My first public showing of my work was in the fall of 2006. Before then many of my creations were hanging in my home, some I gave away to friends and relatives, and a few I sold. When people come to visit me, they usually request a tour of my home so they can see my paintings and other artistic creations. They say my house looks like an art gallery. Most people want to know why I do not quit my job and go into business selling my work. Well, we’ll see . . . ”