- April 29, 2024
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Ormond Beach Art Guild's co-chairs Marilyn Dorinson and Maureen Bridger. Photo by Alexis Miller
Marian Devore, a member of the Art Guild playing the piano at the Opening ceremony of the spring art show. Photo by Alexis Miller
Joe Costanzo and Vicki Faherty, members of the Guild. Photo by Alexis Miller
Almost all of the painting displayed were for sale. Photo by Alexis Miller
Members of the Ormond Beach Art Guild come together twice a year to hold art exhibits at The Casements — one in the spring and one in the fall.
An opening reception on Saturday, April 6, introduced this year’s spring exhibit to the public. The exhibit includes 38 pieces, painted by 19 different artists, and is available to view until April 28.
The reception offered food and refreshments and live music from Guild member and pianist Marian Devore. Every artist showcased two paintings in the exhibit; the majority of them are for sale with a diverse range of images.
“The exhibit has everything you can imagine: landscapes, portraits, still-life, and in various mediums, more watercolor than anything but some acrylic and pastel pieces as well,” said Maureen Bridger, co-chair of the Guild.
The Guild started in 1983 when a group of artists met at the former Ormond Beach Senior Center off North Nova Road. After six years of painting together, they decided to ask other senior artists to join their club, creating the Ormond Beach Art Guild.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Guild held weekly meetings at the Ormond Beach Senior Center off Andrews Street. to paint, but due to the pandemic shutdowns, they were forced to halt their meetings. Members briefly returned to the Senior Center after it reopened, but decided to go a different route and started having their meetings at the Trails’ Clubhouse on Tuesdays to paint as it “suited their needs better,” said Marilyn Dorinson, co-chair of the Guild.
Bridger and Dorinson found art again with the Guild after retiring from their lifelong careers.
Bridger became a member of the Guild around 10 years ago after retiring from her job as a nurse and finding her passion for art again. She painted back in high school, but never took an art class. Then, she said, she became too occupied with a career and family and didn’t have much time for hobbies.
Bridger has experimented with oil paints, watercolors and pastels, but tends to stick with watercolors now. The pieces she has showcased in this exhibit are “Thatched Cottage with Garden” and “Eze, France” based off a small town in France that she and her husband visited.
Dorinson invited Bridger to join her at the Guild one day and shortly after, Bridger became a member.
Dorinson began taking art classes at 11 years old and continued taking them through high school and college. She also became occupied with a family and career as a French teacher, and stopped painting until her retirement. She focuses primarily on watercolors.
The pieces she showcased in this exhibit depict a small medieval town in France, the piece of which is titled “Tourettes-Sur-Loup,” and a festival in France. The latter is titled “Festival Goers,” which is based off a photograph she had taken.
“I want people to appreciate the place, the event, the colors and the different styles in my paintings,” Dorinson said.
Watercolors are something Guild member Joe Costanzo knows a lot about, as he has been painting with them since his early 20s.
Costanzo started his painting journey at a young age with watercolors and moved on to be a sign painter in his mid-20s. But due to the reposition of his work, he said painting for fun slowly came to a halt. After moving on to corporate work and retiring, he rediscovered working with watercolors again.
Costanzo joined the Guild around eight years ago after painting with them for the summer. He now teaches watercolor classes during the meetings. He is showcasing “Wildflowers,” a painting of a stone wall behind a flower field, and “Overcast,” a landscape painting.
“I want people to take away a feeling like they’ve been there or would like to be there,” Costanzo said “I usually start with a photograph or place that I’ve been but this time, I just invoked the pictures out of my imagination, which is kind of unusual for me.”
The Casements is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. The exhibit is also available to view on The Casements’ website via a slideshow.
