Small Town News

Exhibit to open May 27 at Ellen Rice Gallery

---

Painting from Memory to be debuted

Internationally collected Delaware artist Ellen Rice will kick off a monthlong exhibit titled Painting from Memory this weekend with the debut in print of her original oil on canvas,"Midnight Magic."

The exhibit opens to the public at 10 a.m., Friday, May 27, at the Ellen Rice Gallery in Ocean View, with wine and cheese receptions from 3 to 6 p.m., Friday, Saturday and Sunday to accommodate busy holiday schedules and avoid heavier traffic times.

"Midnight Magic," which was inspired by memories of countless boardwalk strolls at night, portrays onshore breakers back-lit by the full moon. It's one of more than 30 Ellen Rice paintings now in print that were painted from memory without use of any reference materials.

"Although I've painted a lot of landmarks using reference photos, many of my favorite paintings were painted strictly from memories. They're paintings that seem to just emerge from the canvas and paint themselves," said Rice.

"The memory pieces featured in this exhibit have a dreamlike quality to them. They're quiet, peaceful places I'd like to be, maybe a little bit of heaven."

Along with each painting, Rice has written a short explanation of its evolution from blank canvas or piece of paper to finished work. '"Midnight Magic' started with a light source, the moon, and evolved from there as I

worked forward. There's a whole cloud system underneath the mist surrounding the moon that brings out the effect of a ring around the moon," she writes.

For the exhibit, Rice has pulled from her teen years to include her first oil painting of the area, a large palette knife painting of the surf at Rehoboth Beach, painted from memory after her first summer in Rehoboth in 1962 at age 13. "I usually paint fairly realistically these days," said Rice,"especially when painting a specific place or building, for instance the view from Indian River Inlet bridge, where you want the angle of the coastline to be recognizable, or the Bethany landmark Ad-dy Sea Bed & Breakfast, where you want it to look like that specific building on that specific piece of coastline.

"But even with these, I put away the photo references pretty early in the painting and go on from memory, and you can see it in the finished work, the feeling of the work, the emotion that comes through.

"Painting something exactly the way a photo looks, for me, duesn't accomplish anything that taking a photo couldn't do, except as a learning tool or a personal challenge to see if you can do it. I want my work to have life, make you feel like you're there, pajj of the view in the frame, and that comes from what courses through the artist's thoughts and brush while painting." "Hfcice, voted one of Delaware's top 10 most collectible shore artists in a survey by Delaware Bach Life magazine, has been painting the people, wildlife and places of Delmarva professional since 1971. Her works can be found in private, government and corporate collections throughout the United States aMabroad.

The Ellen Rice Gallery, founded in 1999, is a national NICHE Tap Retailer Award finalist for galleries featuring the handmade works of professional American

artisans. The gallery is located at 103 Atlantic Ave. (Rt. 26) in Ocean View, 2.2 miles west of the Indian totem pole at Bethany Beach.

More information is available by calling the gallery at 302-539-3405 or toll-free 888-ELL-RICE (355-7423) and on the artist's website, www.ellenrice.com.





© 2011 Cape Gazette Lewes, Delaware. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

More from Cape Gazette