Taking its origins from 17th-century Paris salons, the summer salon show tradition flourishes every July at Annapolis galleries, which hold invitational exhibits to showcase artists' new works.
Last weekend this event was celebrated at McBride Gallery on Main Street, where for the past 29 years gallery owner Cynthia McBride has introduced a growing number of first-rate representational artists to local admirers. The shows encourage artists and viewers to get acquainted through an understanding of the artist's work.
Featured artist Scott Lloyd Anderson conducted a three-hour plein-air painting demonstration, followed by an evening artists reception that included Anderson discussing his work.
Born in 1958 in Atlanta, Anderson grew up in Chicago and moved to Minnesota in 1980. After spending 22 years as a magazine designer, he left his computer in 2001 to paint outside. He studied with artists who had been taught by American Impressionist Frank Vincent Dumond of Old Lyme, Conn., and incorporated Dumond's prismatic color palette to capture nature.
Anderson describes his paintings as "impressionistic in describing the unique character of a particular day's weather and light, and realistic in their desire to show the world as it is." He uses "the language of landscape to express abstract notions about color, form, design - and simply for the pleasing texture of paint on canvas."
Marked by a large open umbrella above the sidewalk on Main Street, the artist's site was easy to locate and hard to leave as we watched him create. He worked to capture the scene directly across the street, where Chancery Lane climbs between Colonial brick buildings up a hill to State Circle, and the State House dome is outlined by the sky.
At midafternoon, Anderson was applying the darker colors from his palette mixed from patches of umber, cobalt and crimson to dissolve into deep neutral tones on the canvas. As the artist worked in sure strokes, capturing the natural light, this early process gained a certain lyricism from a young man seated on the steps playing classical flute music.
Adding a distinctly Annapolis flavor to the scene, the musician lent scale and human warmth to Anderson's evolving work. Some minutes after our arrival, the musician left the steps and crossed Main Street to chat with Anderson, who had persuaded him to stay for a $10 fee in a gesture of an artist supporting a fellow artist.
How he does it
