~Fine Art and Pottery on Sale Will Enhance County Centre’s Building Fund

A new exhibit of paintings and pottery by three accomplished eastern Maryland artisans opens on Friday, 8 November and running through 30 November at Queen Anne’s County’s Centre for the Arts, 206 S. Commerce Street, Centreville. Works on show are for sale and partial proceeds will benefit the Centre’s Building Fund.

Grasonville resident Karen Cunningham calls pottery her “passion”. She studied both wheel and hand-building techniques for three years at the Academy of Art Museum in Easton, Maryland, and took courses in Colorado where she was particularly influenced by a renowned potter from Mexico, Juan Quezada.

“While I enjoy wheel work and producing functional dishes, I especially treasure my hand-built pots, many built using the coil method … a very labor intensive process.” Occasionally, Ms. Cunningham will put a piece into her fireplace “which produces smoky and colored highlights.”

Ms. Cunningham is an active member of Easton’s “All Fired Up” and the Clay Guild of the Eastern Shore as well as the Academy of Art Museum and the QAC Centre of the Arts.

Native Washingtonian Geraldine K. Czajkowski, today another Grasonville resident, began painting early, studying under landscape and portrait artist, Dan Mistrik, in Bethesda, Maryland. A BFA in oil painting and drawing from Ohio University led to a 26-year care in patent illustration and art direction, from which she is now retired. www.gcartworks.com

Czajkowski is decidedly active in her métier. She is a Signature member of the Baltimore Watercolor Society and a member of Working Artists Forum in Easton, Maryland. She exhibits regularly throughout the mid-Atlantic and donates time and talent to such highly-regarded benevolent events such as Saks Fifth Avenue’s Tsunami Benefit for Save the Children in Virginia and the National Museum for Women in the Arts auction in Washington, D.C.

Recent works by Stephanie Nadolski integrate handmade papers and found objects with paintings and monotypes. Her work is exhibited primarily as one-person shows, and national and regional exhibitions throughout the United States.

“I work intuitively in painting, printmaking, and mixed media,” says Nadolski, “responding to what unfolds with the interaction of inks, pigments, and surfaces shaped by influences of a time and place, the essence of an experience. Fascination for the unpredictable has led to work with monotypes and collagraphs, giving up a degree of control for the element of surprise with the transfer of ink from plate to paper. I paint as an expression of self, for the challenge and joy of it, but knowing visual art must be seen to be heard, my greatest satisfaction comes when it communicates with you. Then you, too, become a participant in the conversation with art.”

Nadolski’s professional affiliations include the Baltimore Watercolor Society and National Collage Society, the Colored Pencil Society of America and Maryland Printmakers. She lives and works in Shady Side, Maryland. www.stephanienadolski.com

Painting and Pottery Exhibit and Sale, 08-30 November 2013, QAC Centre for the Arts, 206 S. Commerce Street, Centreville, Maryland, www.arts4u.info , 410 758 2520

The Queen Anne’s County Arts Council, Inc., is a non-profit organization committed to promoting, expanding and sustaining the arts.