People traveling downtown in Chestertown on Saturday were treated to something completely different at High Street’s Memorial Park. RiverArts played host to ceramic artist and educator Brett Thomas and his Mobile Raku studio. Almost a dozen workshop students spent the day firing raku kilns and burning local handmade pottery to the delight of assembled participants and the curious public.
Western raku involves forced interaction with smoke and flames to produce wildly colorful and awe-inspiring ceramic art. Normally a kiln firing is a long, hands-off, and hidden process. Raku firings are fast, hands-on, and in the open. Participants spent the day learning about raku techniques and investigating proper firing procedures to achieve beautiful results. The immediacy and serendipity of raku is something anyone can appreciate.
The RiverArts Clay Studio will host another mobile raku workshop in the spring of 2020. Anyone interested in participating in this event, or any other RiverArts programming, should visit ChestertownRiverArts.org for more information. Consider becoming a RiverArts member to receive benefits and instant news about future workshops.
RiverArts galleries and main office are at 315 High Street, Suite 106, Chestertown, MD 21620 – (in the breezeway). Gallery hours are Tuesday – Friday, 11 AM to 5:30 PM, Saturday 10 AM to 5:30PM, Sunday 11 AM – 3 PM, First Fridays until 8 PM.
Baroque gem from the Venetian-born master. But just before Maestro Benichou took the stage, it was announced that the church’s newly acquired “piano” was actually an electronic keyboard instrument that could also be played in piano mode. Its versatility was deployed most effectively in the Vivaldi piece, which calls for a clavichord in the second-movement Adagio. The sound emanating from the keyboard resembled that of the more familiar harpsichord, also a staple of the Baroque period. It fit appropriately with the lyrical conversation between cello soloists Daniel Gaisford and Jacques-Pierre Malan, both drawn from the MSO roster of accomplished string musicians.
D major, which could easily be mistaken for a Mozart composition. Haydn met Mozart around the time this concerto was written and befriended the young genius. The first movement introduces a theme presented by the strings and further developed by the pianist, which Castell-Jacomin carries out with deft precision, further explored in a teasing tickle of the keys in the next movement. Eastern European dance motifs supply ample opportunity for the soloist to display his skills, though much of the concerto is in the higher end of the scale. Castell-Jacomin took the opportunity to show a greater range in a bonus performance of a Chopin etude. However, the limitations of the piano mode of the electronic device became apparent in reverberations in the lower registers.
The chorus will also sing a lovely collection of songs celebrating the birth of Christ. Included will be “This Little Babe” and Deo Grazias” by Benjamin Britten, “In the Bleak Midwinter” by Harold Darke, and the Revels version of “God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen,” arranged by Jeremy Epstein. The songs will be accompanied by harp, flute and classical guitar.
e,” a scrapbook-style juxtaposition of a classic “why-don’t-you-kiss-me?” photo with a game-of-chance pair of playing cards—the king and queen of hearts. Next to “Enigma” is a tromp l’oeil appropriation of Vermeer’s “Girl With a Pearl Earring.”
show include Raoul Middleman, featured at the Troika during last summer’s Plein Air Festival, and Victor Nizvotsev, who demonstrated his painting technique in a First Friday reception last weekend. His stunning harlequin painting “Carnival” will grab your eye as you walk through Troika’s front door. “Victor says we all go through life wearing many masks,” recalls gallery manager Peg Fitzgerald. “He does many jesters.”
outside the door.” She also leads a “Nature Sketchers” walk every first Sunday of the month at Adkins Arboretum near Ridgley. Her twin passions of serenity in painting and nature are reflected in “Chesapeake Sundown,” an oil for sale at The Green Phoenix. Nearby, Wetzel’s artisanal works in collaboration with Martha Bogan of Nevitt include woven rims framing ceramic bowls, plates and vases—the latter pretty enough to give flowers competition in a beauty contest.
