Adkins Mystery Monday: What has Lovely Pods?
The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.
Nonpartisan and Education-based News for Cambridge
The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.
The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.
John Moran’s paintings are like stories in the process of unfolding. On view at the Adkins Arboretum Visitor’s Center through Feb. 26, Journeys Imagined, his exhibit of watercolor, oil and acrylic paintings, brims with rich, glowing color and animated trees, hills, clouds and abstract forms. There will be a reception to meet the artist on Sat., Feb. 19 from 2 to 4 p.m.
Although his paintings almost always suggest landscapes, they hover strangely between representation and abstraction. Colorful, inviting and often playful, they are full of the dreamlike, half-formed shapes you might glimpse in your imagination.
There’s a curved, cream-colored shape in “Nearing the Distance” that seems like a boat afloat in a sea of purple and violet water with islands and dark hills beyond. But none of it is distinct. The “boat” might just be a reflection of a pale cloud in the upper left or a shimmer of moonlight across the water.
Moran’s paintings are evocative of many things, but you can never be quite sure of what, and it’s this uncertainty that makes them so appealing. With no idea how a painting will turn out, Moran begins with some washes of color, then he paints in more colors and shapes, alters them, scrapes some paint away and paints some more. It’s a process of continual change as he experiments with how colors and shapes react to one another.
“It’s never planned,” he said. “I’m working on a painting now that’s all blue, but yesterday or the day before it was all red.”
Now living in Chester, Moran grew up in Washington, D.C., and began taking art classes in his late twenties at the American Academy of Art in Chicago. For 25 years, he lived in West Virginia and continued to paint, mostly creating plein air watercolor landscapes, while raising his family, farming and working at a government job. After his retirement in 1997, he chose to concentrate on art and in 2006 earned an MFA from the Hoffberger School of Painting at the Maryland Institute College of Art.
Over the years, Moran has developed his own very distinctive style, though occasionally there’s a nod to Arshile Gorky, Joan Miro, Salvador Dali or some other artist. Because he is so fascinated with the process of painting, he relishes the work of many different kinds of painters, listing Francis Bacon, David Hockney and Wayne Thiebaud as some of his favorites.
For Moran, the process of painting is almost more important than the finished work, and he enjoys the unexpected accidents that happen along the way. Dripping paint might turn into tree trunks or a coal-black mass might suggest a rocky seacoast, while a band of sooty red and luminous scarlet shapes below it call to mind molten lava churning deep in the earth.
There is much that is unpredictable and even slightly mystical in his paintings. Moran likes to think of them as visual poetry, never static and always open to new interpretations.
“I don’t know why these are what they are, and I can’t explain it,” he said. “I think it’s another language. Painting expresses something that can’t be said in words.”
Journeys Imagined is part of Adkins Arboretum’s ongoing exhibition series of work on natural themes by regional artists. It is on view through Feb. 26 at the Arboretum Visitor’s Center located at 12610 Eveland Road near Tuckahoe State Park in Ridgely. Contact the Arboretum at 410–634–2847, ext. 0 or [email protected] for gallery hours.
Adkins Arboretum is a 400-acre native garden and preserve at the headwaters of the Tuckahoe Creek in Caroline County. For more information, visit adkinsarboretum.org or call 410-634-2847, ext. 0
The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.
The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.
The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.
The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.
The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.
Happy Mystery Monday! As we enter December, some plants prove to be more hardy than we might expect. Do you know what plant has this longlasting fall foliage?
The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.
Adkins Arboretum has been awarded a $5,000 grant from the PNC Foundation to continue making nature-based education more accessible to local preschoolers.
“We love being able to offer free nature preschool classes to children who live in Caroline County,” said Adkins Assistant Director Jenny Houghton. “With continued funding from PNC, we can now expand our offerings to engage local schools. Providing meaningful outdoor experiences at a young age is a great way to tap into children’s innate curiosity about the natural world.”
This is the sixth year that the Arboretum’s Acorn Academy Nature Preschool has been awarded a grant from the PNC Foundation, which receives its principal funding from The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. During the first year, funding allowed the Arboretum to offer one session of nature preschool programs per season at no cost to residents of Caroline County. These popular programs for children ages 3 to 5 engage children with nature and serve as an introduction to the outdoors, wildlife and conservation while also providing school-readiness skills. Subsequent grants allowed the Arboretum to expand its preschool offerings to two sessions per season.
This year, funding will continue to support the nature preschool program and will also allow the Arboretum to develop and provide school field trips for preschoolers enrolled in Caroline County Public Schools. The Arboretum’s assistant director is collaborating with the Coordinator of Instruction for Early Childhood in Caroline County to ensure that field trips align with Maryland state curriculum.
Environmental education has been linked to improved academic achievement and encourages stewardship, pride and ownership. Adkins Arboretum’s nature preschool programs put students on the path toward cultivating a meaningful awareness of the human-environmental connection and instill basic tenets of critical thinking and investigation skills.
Adkins Arboretum is a 400-acre native garden and preserve at the headwaters of the Tuckahoe Creek in Caroline County. Open year round, the Arboretum offers educational programs for all ages. For more information, visit adkinsarboretum.org or call 410-634-2847, ext. 0.
The PNC Foundation actively supports organizations that provide services for the benefit of communities in which it has a significant presence. The foundation focuses its philanthropic mission on early childhood education and community and economic development, which includes arts and culture.
The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.
Adkins Arboretum in Ridgely, Md., is seeking submissions for its annual Juried Art Show, to exhibit in March and April 2022. The theme of the show—Discovering the Native Landscapes of Maryland’s Eastern Shore—celebrates the Arboretum’s mission of conservation. The Leon Andrus Awards, named in honor of the Arboretum’s first benefactor, will be given for first and second places.
The show is open to original two- and three-dimensional fine arts in all mediums, including outdoor sculpture and installations. This year’s juror, Teddy Johnson, is a painter and serves as director of the Cade Gallery and assistant professor of visual arts at Anne Arundel Community College.
The deadline for submissions is Jan. 20, 2022. Digital images of up to three pieces of art by each artist should be sent to [email protected]. Submissions should include title, medium, dimensions (maximum of 6 feet in any direction, excluding outdoor sculpture) and artist’s name, address and phone number. Works should reflect or interpret broadly the show’s theme of the wild nature and landscapes of the mid-Atlantic coastal plain region.
Artists whose work is selected will be contacted by Feb. 11 to submit the original work ready to hang by Feb. 26. The exhibit will run from March 1 to April 29, 2022, with a reception on Sat., March 12 from 2 to 4 p.m. There is no entry fee, but artists are responsible for all shipping expenses. Selected artists may be considered for future exhibits at the Arboretum.
For more information, visit adkinsarboretum.org, call 410-634-2847, ext. 0 or send e-mail to [email protected].
The 2022 Juried Art Show is part of Adkins Arboretum’s ongoing exhibition series of work on natural themes by regional artists.
Adkins Arboretum is a 400-acre native garden and preserve at the headwaters of the Tuckahoe Creek in Caroline County. For more information, visit adkinsarboretum.org or call 410-634-2847, ext. 0.
The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.