To help celebrate McBride Gallery's 30th anniversary, owner Cynthia McBride arranged a comprehensive exhibit of more than 100 new works of art. At a reception last weekend, many of the 40 exhibiting artists were on hand to talk about their work.
McBride Gallery was established in 1980 near City Dock. It was the second commercial gallery in Annapolis (after the Marine Art Gallery, which McBride launched with a partner in 1978). In 1990, McBride Gallery moved to its present quarters in one of the oldest buildings on upper Main Street. It is one of the largest galleries in Annapolis, with seven rooms of original art representing 60 artists, and includes paintings, sculpture and original graphics.
McBride's love of art and business began in her childhood on a Minnesota farm, where she admired the watercolors of her mother, Frances Karlson, and the business skills of her dairy farmer father, Elmer Karlson.
At 25, she opened her first gallery in 1972 in Hull, Mass., with a $2,000 bank loan. She later sold the gallery when she moved to Sewickley, Pa., where she opened her second gallery.
She sold that gallery when her family — husband Gardner McBride and daughters Elizabeth and Abigail — moved to Annapolis in 1976. Two years after she arrived, McBride started the Marine Art Gallery.
At last weekend's reception, McBride expressed her appreciation to "staff, friends and neighbors and collectors for their sustaining patronage." She attributed her success to her "joy in serving the artists and customers. I love what I'm doing and see it as my life. If I can help artists to improve their careers by growing to another skill level, I'm delighted."
For the anniversary celebration, McBride Gallery offers a visual feast of representational art. Among the arresting works are an exciting oil titled "Annapolis Boat Show" by Maryland impressionist Bill Schmidt, who captures shimmering light on water in a scene that highlights one of the major events on the Annapolis calendar.
Another artist skilled at depicting nature is Jim Rodgers, whose "Quiet Brook at Evening" reveals a luminous sunset sky taking up two-thirds of the canvas, with its colors reflected in the placid stream below.
A work that invites the viewer to pause for an appreciative gaze is a large, lyrical still-life: "Honeydew With Ginkgo" by Joseph Iantorno. It depicts an inverted triangular-shaped brown vase holding leaves that spread horizontally to frame a ripe melon slice lying below.
Abigail McBride's sun-splashed "Summer Still Life" features vases of iris with partly peeled citrus fruit arranged on a table, where pitchers and vases cast lavender-blue shadows on a white linen tablecloth, making the work a fascinating study of light.
In several of the gallery rooms are whimsical works by Maryland resident Victor Nizovtsev that invite us to enter the world of childhood. The artist, who was born in Siberia and studied art in Moldova before arriving in the United States in 1997, shares his rich and diverse world filled with folklore and childhood memories.
His fanciful painting, "Morning Traffic," depicts a magical world featuring a warmly lit cottage surrounded by some unusual sky traffic. A knitting grandmother in a flying boot watches over her sleeping grandchild. Nearby, a flying skate is occupied by two contented children, and flying below them is a boy in a giant mitten dragging half an oversized tangerine behind him. Three huge, luscious cupcakes drift in the nearby sky to complete what could be a perfect Christmas holiday scene.
Nizovtsev explained his work as depicting that "time when you're still in two worlds between sleep and waking, when you're a child waking up to hear sounds from the kitchen and smell what Grandmother has baked."
If you go
The 30th anniversary show at McBride Gallery, 215 Main St., Annapolis, continues through June 30. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursdays and noon to 5:30 p.m. Sundays. Go to mcbridegallery.com to preview some works.