OCEAN CITY — Fine artists from around the region set up their work with the Atlantic Ocean as a backdrop during the three-day Boardwalk Art Show last week.
Joanne Coffman and Lynn Sullivan of the host Ocean City Arts Center, who were sitting in the sun at the registration table, said it was the 61st annual show.
“It draws fine artists, not too crafty,” Coffman said. “Paintings, photography, all media … oil, watercolors, pastels, acrylic.”
“All two-dimensional,” Sullivan added.
Michael Brodzik and his wife, Samantha, brought his pieces from Magnolia, continuing a tradition for the 10th summer.
He called his work a mixture of pop art and contemporary art infused with graffiti.
“I’m a big fan of graffiti, a big fan of pop art and street art and have fused that all together,” he said.
Most if not all of his painting features paint drips.
“I love the expression that it gives,” he said, noting it is nontraditional. “It’s a bit more of a stand-out style.”
He works in acrylic and spray paint on canvas, saying his pieces are popular and the sales keep him coming back.
“This is my best show I do all year,” he said, noting he does eight to 10 in the tristate area.
“I like that I stand out. There’s a lot of beach-themed stuff here, so I am really the only one on the boardwalk that does this style of art,” Brodzik said.
Alexa Gryga, a public school art teacher south of Philadelphia, was showing her linoleum carved prints and watercolor paintings.
The Kutztown University graduate, who has a BFA in printmaking and an education degree, said most of the proceeds from the show go toward stocking her school art room.
“I always say that a government-funded classroom doesn’t have any color,” Gryga said.
Her parents own a home in nearby Ocean View and she has been visiting the shore every summer since she was a girl.
“I’m a born beach babe,” she said.
Gryga said she has been participating in the show since 2017, noting she likes the long hours, which provide a lot of exposure.
Helena and Patrick Cicero of Mechanicsburg, Pa., were at the end of their weeklong stay in America’s Greatest Family Resort when they stopped to look at some prints.
Helena said she spotted the booths during her morning bike ride and decided to bring her husband back to browse.
Emily Arenberg, a Cape May County Technical School graduate from nearby Cape May Court House, has traditionally worked in paints but started creating resin-coated pieces several years ago.
Arenberg studied painting with oils and watercolors at Marymount Manhattan College but most of the work she featured at the show was resin on wood.
“After I graduated, I discovered this resin art and got really into the ocean resin pieces,” she said.
Arenberg applies paint on the wood and then adds pigmented resin to create the look of sand and waves.
It was her second year at the show.
“I really like the exposure that it has brought me and enjoy doing shows because it lets me interact with customers and I know where my art is going,” she said.
Perhaps to make up for her diminutive size, Andee Axe of Philadelphia creates large paintings featuring flowers and beach scenes bursting with color.
Her work features an epoxy finish, her “secret formula,” that makes it shiny and impermeable.
Axe said she has been participating for three years and won the purchase prize her first year.
– STORY and PHOTOS by CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff