Keene Artist Wins Top Regional Juried Exhibit Award

From Jackie Hooper, Redfern: Eight artists from New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts received jurors’ awards at a Friday, January 23, reception opening the 2009 Biennial Regional Jurors’ Choice Exhibition at the Thorne-Sagendorph Art Gallery. Jurors Gail E. Sauter from Kittery, Maine, a master pastelist and a Copley artist, and contemporary artist Bert Yarborough from Hartford, Vt., an associate professor of art at Colby-Sawyer College, chose three top awards and five honorable mentions. Visitors to the regional jurors’ exhibit are invited to vote for a People’s Choice Commendation. The artist winning this $100 prize will be announced February 12.

• Nicole Caulfield of Keene won the Jurors’ Best of Show Award for Zen, a colored pencil work. The $500 prize for this award is sponsored by the Friends of the Thorne.
• Patricia Schappler of Bedford, N.H., was awarded second place of $300 for Heading Downtown, an acrylic painting.
• Ronnie McClure of Canterbury, N.H., received third place of $200 for Crossing, an ink and colored pencil work on rag paper.

The exhibit also features Selections from the Hubbard Collection, which showcases a sample of the 56 works recently donated to Keene State by Robert P. Hubbard of Walpole, N.H. The Collection includes paintings, drawings, prints, and sculpture by a variety of artists such as Elaine de Kooning, Albert Hirschfeld, William Hogarth, Francisco de Goya, N. C. Wyeth, and others. The Singer, a sculpture by David Aronson, has been installed in front of the Redfern Art Center where it greets all passersby.

The Biennial Regional Jurors’ Choice Exhibition and Selections from the Hubbard Collection are free and open to the public. For more information, call 8-2720 or visit the website.