Bethesda and Chevy Chase Artist Groups Branch Out

Two local arts and letters groups have teamed up for a multimedia exhibit at the Sandy Spring Museum.  Eighteen artists from the Bethesda and Chevy Chase Branches of National League of American Pen Women (NLAPW) have more than 40 works on display through Sept. 11. NLAPW is the oldest multidisciplinary arts organization for women in the U.S.

Walking into the museum’s Douglas-Farquhar Gallery, Joan Tarbell Plato’s acrylic “Space Journey” wows visitors with an explosion of blue and green geometric shapes. But that's just the beginning.

Bethesda branch president Barbara Nuss has three paintings in the exhibit, including “Peonies,” an oil on linen of a vase spilling over with blossoms. Nuss is an award-winning professional artist who has been active in the branch for 24 years. The group has about 15 members now, mainly artists but has some writers and two composers.

“My big thing about being a member is how inspiring all the other people are," said Nuss. "It gets me outside my painting circles to listen to other people who are also in the arts, and the creative juices get going and that’s what I like. It’s my day to let my brain wander.” 

Nuss is also president of the Washington Society of Landscape Painters. 

Also from the Bethesda branch, Yolanda Frederikse is a painter who takes painting inspiration from local scenes. She has two oils in the exhibit, “Daingerfield Island Pier,” and “Along the C&O,” as well as a watercolor, “Fells Point Twilight.”  And Rhona L.K. Schonwald says her colorful paintings drawing from nature “are designed to be turned and viewed in multiple ways.”  Schonwald also has six sculptures on display, from the striking clay “Spring Goddess” to two small Raku bowls. 

Sharyn Bowman, president of the Chevy Chase branch, is both a photographer (the only one in this exhibit) and a writer.  Both her works have Maryland inspiration: “Horsehead Cliffs” was taken in Southern Maryland, and “Jetty and Lighthouse” was taken in Sandy Point State Park.  Both are long-exposure fine art landscape photographs. 

“What I’m interested in is catching the movement of clouds across the sky as they move and twist, and the camera picks it up. They form very unusual patterns,” she said.  Her branch of NLAPW has about 25 members, “people with very long and prolific careers.”

Also from the Chevy Chase branch, Marcia N. Davis has five etchings in the exhibit.  Nancy M. Leak is a printmaker who is also the illustrator of the picture book The Kissing Hand (by Olney author Audrey Penn).  Both Leak and Genevieve Roberts have etching aquatint miniatures in the exhibit.   Roberts also has an oil painting of “Hooper’s Island” on the Chesapeake Bay and a watercolor monotype “Canopy of Trees.” 

Millie S. Shott’s watercolors on display are all nature-inspired, from “Maine Landscape” to “Stormy Marsh.” Shott is Director of Visual Arts at the Mansion at Joan Eames brings an equestrian motif with two fox hunt oil paintings.  

Other artists on exhibit are Mary Adcock-Ingram and June H. Walker from the Bethesda branch, and Shirley Tabler, Bonita Tabakin-Latterner, Edna Searles and Phyllis Levy from the Chevy Chase branch.

The branches’ next big event is the biennial conference and exhibit of all the Maryland branches which the Chevy Chase branch is hosting Saturday, Oct. 15.

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The National League of American Pen Women exhibit runs through Sept. 11 at the Sandy Spring Museum, 17901 Bentley Road, Sandy Spring. Museum hours are 9a.m -4 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, and noon-4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. The museum is closed Tuesday and Friday.