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January's Featured Artist will be Lynne Johnson Horvath of St. Michaels, who has been a painter for more than 30 years. Easton's Promise will also be opening a small exhibit of photographs by Paul Yglesias, owner of the Hobby Horse on Goldsborough Street.
Horvath works in acrylics, watercolors, and mixed media. As a young woman, she studied commercial art at San Jose State University, and continues to study technique and design to this day. As a working adult in New York, she sold typesetting and graphics equipment, which gave her an enduring love for typography. Now retired, she devotes her time to volunteering in the community, has served on the boards of three local arts organizations; and helps out on graphics projects when she can.
A frequent award winner for her paintings, Horvath's goal is to make the viewer see a moment in time, an interior or outdoor scene with a different viewpoint, a memory, or scenarios from dreams. Her paintings often appeal to people who share the same memory. One recent watercolor was “a personal image of a radiator, a barred window and a curtain in the sun in a Hell's Kitchen apartment,” in which she was sure no one would be interested. But sure enough, someone was, and half the fun of painting, she says, is knowing that “others have the same visions.”
Horvath tries to convey humor, whimsy and often a sense of “home” in her work. Her own style starts to take over almost every painting as it evolves, “no matter how hard I try to veer off into another genre.” A favorite subject is the changing light sifting through loblolly pines, and she paints this theme often. She is not a fast painter, and loves to rework and reglaze the surface until it suits her, often taking weeks to complete a piece.
Horvath has exhibited and sold her paintings, not only locally, but also in New York, Vermont, California and Massachusetts. She and her husband Bob share a studio at their home in St. Michaels, though their styles are very different. That is "probably the secret to sharing a studio,” she says. “That, and having a nice partner, if you're lucky.”
In addition to Horvath's paintings and Yglesias' photographs, Easton's Promise Art Gallery is also showing paintings by Robert Manning, Doug Sefton and Joe Mayer, all of whom have proven to be popular with Easton's Promise's clientele. The gallery is open every Thursday through Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. and by appointment. And of course, they will be open until 9 p.m. for the First Friday Gallery Walk on Jan. 7. Cash, checks, Visa and Mastercard are welcome. For more information, please call the gallery at 410-820-9159, or visit www.eastonspromiseartgallery.com.
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