Your Life

Sunday, Nov. 08, 2009

OSAA SHOWCASED DURING PETER ANDERSON FESTIVAL

OCEAN SPRINGS — It’s no coincidence the Ocean Springs Art Association’s 38th Annual Fine Art Show is happening right in the middle of this weekend’s Peter Anderson Festival.

For most of the festival’s 30-plus years, OSAA has held its annual juried show during the two-week period that spans the two-day festival on the first full weekend in November.

With record sales of $13,000 netted at the exhibit’s opening reception last week and continuing this weekend with up to 150,000 potential visitors, the plan works.

This year, 160 area artists with 175 artworks were awarded more than $5,000 in prize money.

It’s already been a pretty successful show, says OSAA president Carole Marie Stuart, and will be open after the festival until Nov. 14.

Look for it inside the Ocean Springs Community Center, adjacent to Walter Anderson Museum of Art on the south end of the downtown festival.

Judge for the exhibit is Collier Parker, dean of the college of arts and sciences at Delta State University and a student of the old masters, particularly in the theories and philosophical approaches that gave their art its humanistic quality.

His comments show a delighted appreciation for all kinds of artworks and provide insight to viewers.

On “Shadows in Cobalt Blue” by M.C. Drake, an acrylic treeline of repetitive objects that won an excellence award, Parker observed, “Color harmony, rhythm and repetition … help create visual movement and musical quality.”

Among the 20 prizes given in all categories, Catie Manduca and Susie Ranager each won two awards.

In a show with some entries priced at more than $3,000, Manduca’s two winners are low priced and a wonderful example of the scope of the all-local event.

Her “Coneflowers” ($150) won $300 as the Walter I. Anderson Award for “expression of man’s personal relationship with the natural world”; and her “Blue-Violet” ($200) pottery won $200 as the Peter Anderson Memorial Potter’s Award for exceptional beauty and uniqueness in pottery and glaze.

Ranager’s painting of spider lilies, called “Ladies Social,” and another of Horn Island, “Watershed,” each won a judge’s special award.

The show, which Stuart says has 20 more pieces than last year, almost spills out of its space and deserves time to enjoy.

Voting continues today for the exhibition’s two Popular Choice Awards that will be presented when it ends.