Photographer Maryfrances Berger’s work captures natural beauty and coastal moments, frame by frame
An Eye for Inspiration
Painting Partners
Being a painter is a reclusive profession. How each one sees their surroundings is unique and isolated by definition — picking details interesting to them and ignoring others. Even creating a piece of art by laying a brush thick with paint on a board or canvas is a solo pursuit. But some are lucky enough to have another artist near, encouraging and pushing them forward to new and better work. Two professional painters living in Berlin, Lynne Lockhart and Kirk McBride, have an almost idyllic situation. They have found a way to paint alone — together.
Artistic Journey
Few art mediums are as elemental as clay, wood and pigment. Some artists transform these basic materials, intentionally hiding the intrinsic nature and the rawness from the observer. But Chris Richard creates works of art that never obscure the substance of the medium. Instead, he transforms those elemental things with a unique style and vision.
Now living on the bank of the Choptank River in Denton, MD, Chris grew up in New Jersey. His mother was a gifted artist — a sculptor who created realistic work in plasticine and later bronze. But it was a high school ceramics teacher and her husband, also a ceramics teacher, who patiently inspired Chris to explore the craft and develop an important early aesthetic.
After earning his master’s degree from Edinboro University in PA, he first considered teaching. But when a solo exhibition at a prestigious gallery unexpectedly sold out, Chris became a full-time studio artist, focusing on creating work for collectors.
Inspiring Dimension
It was a happy accident of sorts. Jennifer Hudson had purchased a smattering of various art papers she admired for her watercolor paintings and put them on hold. “The paper itself was so beautiful, I didn’t want to layer paint on top of it,” says the Ellicott City-based artist, who studied at the Baltimore School for the Arts with every intention of pursuing a painting career, which she did for some time.