The Belmont Gallery of Art is pleased to announce artists Kay Hudgins, Karla O'Brien and Darisse Paquette as the winners of its first People's Choice Awards. The awards were determined by gallery visitors who voted for their three favorite pieces among the works displayed in the current exhibit, Animal, Vegetable Miracle: A Year of Food Life which opened in June and runs through Oct. 2.
All the art in From the Garden to the Kitchen to the Table was made by Belmont artists, working with the themes of gardening, farming and bringing the harvest to the home, as inspired by author Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable Miracle: A Year of Food Life, this year's One Book, One Belmont selection.
Kay Hudgins,
Rock Meadow: Looking West - October Afternoon, oil on canvas
The three award-winning works, while created in different mediums and using different subjects, complement one another and further the theme of the show, which celebrates gardening and food preparation as well as Belmont's agricultural past.
Award-winning artist Kay Hudgins notes, "The garden/kitchen/table theme of this summer's show was fun because it was open to many interpretations. My painting, Rock Meadow, Looking West, October Afternoon, was of a view from my garden plot at the Belmont Victory Gardens in the Rock Meadow - a plot I have tended for 34 consecutive years - in all kinds of weather conditions, and at all times of day. It is sort of a 'second home' to me, and I have painted a long series of paintings from my experiences there. I feel honored to have received a People's Choice Award for one of them," Adds Hudgins, "The BGA is fast becoming a real Belmont institution and the People's Choice awards offered another level of participation for the community."
Karla O'Brien, Shearing the Sheep I, photograph
Says photographer Karla O'Brien on winning for her Sheep Shearing I piece, "It was an unexpected pleasure to be selected as one of the winners in the show--and a delight that one of our sheep, and her shearer, should be so honored in this way. For me the show, drawing on the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver, which promotes local and self-sustaining agriculture, was a perfect fit for my photographs. For several years we kept a property in central Vermont, grew some vegetables, and maintained a few sheep mostly to keep the land clear from the ever-encroaching weeds and brush, but also to collect the wool and have some lamb to eat. Of course, the sheep ended up becoming pets more than farm animals, but they did very effectively maintain their side of the bargain and keep the land open. In my photography, I have always enjoyed capturing images that tell a story, but also images that draw on the play of light and shade. I think my Sheep Shearing photographs reflect that."
Darisse Paquette, Vegetable Portraits, watercolor
Artist Darisse Paquette, whose background includes work as a professional medical illustrator, won for her Vegetable Portraits, a precisely detailed watercolor of an array of vegetables that was inspired by the bounty of what she saw at local farmer's markets while on vacation in Maine and Martha's Vineyard the past few summers. "I was very surprised and delighted to get a People's Choice Award. It was quite flattering,"says Paquette. "I've purposely been working less as a medical illustrator and getting back to my fine arts background in the last few years. Winning the award validated my desire to go into a new direction with my artistic pursuits at this stage of my life."
The public is invited to see the People's Choice Awards winning artwork by Kay Hudgins, Karla O'Brien and Darisse Paquett in person, as well as view the work of the 29 other Belmont artists featured in From the Garden to the Kitchen to the Table exhibit at the Belmont Gallery of Art through Oct. 2. A closing reception for the show will take place on Friday, Sept. 25, from 6-8pm. The Belmont Gallery of Art is located in the Homer Municipal Building, 3rd floor, 19 Moore Street, Belmont.