Nora Sturges won this years “Bethesda Painting Awards” Competition held at Fraser Gallery in Bethesda, Maryland. She says this about her work…
“My recent paintings depict artic landscapes at the edge of human habitation. They offer evidence of man’s attempts to measure, tame , live in, and understand his world, with the unknowable vastness of nature itself. Are we looking at the ending of something, or the beginning of something else?”
The review at the Gazette.net states…
“The jurors awarded the “Best in Show,” or first-place, to Nora Sturges, associate professor of art and head of painting and drawing at Towson University. Working on a diminutive scale in oil on fiberboard panels, Sturges’ paintings are miniature worlds, completely fantasized, but composed of details of the real world. The sharply realist technique gives them an almost photographic feeling, but their subject matter makes them feel surreal — especially the smallest pieces that measure about 3 by 4 inches. Slightly larger works depict a research station in the Arctic, with darkness and cracking ice meant both as environmental comment and a meditation on the idea of “frontier,” where intervention may be worthwhile but also potentially destructive..”
A great show to see. I hope to see it sometime, myself! Check out her website at Nora Sturges