Painting

Anyone who wants to know how much a work of art can tell u about itself and the extent to which it can shed light on the art of its time must see "A Renaissance Puzzle: Heemskerck's 'Abduction of Helen' " at the Walters Art Gallery.Although this spectacular painting has been on view all along at the Walters, it has in a real sense been brought out of hiding by this show, organized by Renaissance curator Joaneath Spicer.By assembling nearly 30 other related works dating from antiquity through the 18th century from the Walters and other collections, the curator has revealed many aspects of the painting's meaning that today's museum-goer is not likely to understand without help.

"Painting Churches," the Tina Howe play in production at the Colonial Players of Annapolis, has nothing to do with the decoration of religious structures.Rather, it is the story of the Church family: Gardiner, a distinguished old poet on the cusp of senility; Fanny, his bitter, funny, devoted wife, and Mags, their portrait-painting daughter.Complicated emotions intensify and spill over as Mags goes to herparents on an infrequent visit just as they are moving out of their old house to take up a residence at a retirement cottage on Cape Cod.Despite her whimsical appeal, Fanny Church is a tough character to take as she guzzles booze, nags Mags about her hair, profession and lifestyle and complains incessantly about the indignities she faces as her husband's faculties decline.

The favorite painting of a Severna Park woman whose art was on exhibit at the Severna Park library was stolen from the display last week.Carolyn Councell, 56, said her watercolor of the Pride of Baltimore wasn't worth much money, but it was one of her favorites.The paintings are on display through December.Mrs. Councell noticed her painting was gone when she went to the library to check on the exhibit last week, she said. "The sense that someone would do that, especially at this time of year, bothers me," she said.

Richard Harryman has found his painting. Last week, he thought "City Slickers" had been lost or stolen. The painting shows his friends, the late Chick Levitt and the late Bill Larash and his wife, standing outside Chick & Ruth's delicatessen in Annapolis.Del. John Leopold read a newspaper article about the painting and contacted a reporter, who in turn called Mr. Harryman. It seems the painting had been hanging in the Lowe House Office Building all along.Mr. Harryman, 66, did not know whether the painting was his original or a print until he saw it in the delegation room.

There's nothing like a good cleaning to make a 400-year-old painting by Titian or Veronese shine again. But the same sort of careful refurbishment can work wonders on more recent works as well, such as the lovely 1985 Maryland landscape by Eugene Leake that's a highlight of the group show Summer '06 at C. Grimaldis Gallery. SUMMER '06 -- Through Aug. 19 -- C. Grimaldis Gallery, 523 N. Charles St. -- 410-539-1080.

The National Gallery of Art said last week that it would return a 17th-century Flemish painting to the heirs of Marguerite Stern, the widow of a Jewish banker from France whose art collection was seized by the Nazis when they occupied Paris. Members of the Stern family, now living in Europe, moved to reclaim the painting by Frans Snyders, after reading about it on the gallery's Web site. The painting, "Still Life With Fruit and Game," is the first that the museum agreed to return to its prewar owners.

Catherine M. Willing, a homemaker who enjoyed painting, died of multiple myeloma Monday at Chesapeake Hospice House in Linthicum. The former resident of Madison in Dorchester County was 78. She was born Catherine Mary Demling in Baltimore and raised in Highlandtown. Mrs. Willing was a 1944 graduate of the Institute of Notre Dame. She was married in 1947 to Howard E. Willing, an American Can Co. employee, who died in 1995. Since 1998, she had lived at Heritage Harbor Health and Rehabilitation Center in Annapolis.

The way Christopher White describes his latest contest-winning painting, the rockfish mating ritual sounds a lot like teen-agers cruisinga shopping mall on Saturday night."

Anne Weikart, 63, knew her painting of several near-naked seniors changing in a college locker room had a good chance of winning first place in the Anne Arundel County Art Competition.Weikart, one of 24 senior winners in Gov. William Donald Schaefer's "Maryland You Are Beautiful" Senior Citizens Arts Competition, will unveil her work -- entitled "Golden Girls" -- at a June 27 ceremony presided over by the governor."I must admit, I was told it would have a chance of winning by several people who viewed it at one of the gallery's I belong to," she said.

Theresa L. Hill, special assistant to Police Commissioner Thomas C. Frazier, was watching "The Joy of Painting" on PBS when she thought, "I wish I could do that."A year and a half later, one of her paintings hangs in City Hall.The first Baltimore City Employee Visual Arts Exhibition is a chance for workers such as Hill to showcase a side of themselves that is never seen in the workplace and often is not known to their colleagues.The 20 pieces in the exhibit, which opened Nov. 22 and runs until Jan. 17, include a giraffe mask, a clay and plaster sun and a photograph of Yellowstone Park.