The township hosted its annual Art Blooms Juried Exhibit reception at the Croft Farms Arts Center on May 5 with more than 190 pieces submitted.
Artists paid $10 per entry. Of those, 80 pieces by 61 artists were chosen for the exhibit.
In first place was Sharon Paisner, who taught some art classes during her 26-year school career. The Berlin resident has been creating art professionally for 20 years. And while she’s participated in Art Blooms before, this year marks her first on top.
” … I appreciate it and I spoke to the judges, one of the judges,” she said. “He was very schooled and I really consider it an honor.”
Paisner’s entry was a still life of flowers.
“I’m very drawn to flowers,” she explained. “Their beauty is so shortlived and I want to capture it. And then I have favorite objects that I use or I see something and I look at the object and that gets me started. And then, the big thing is making an arrangement, and my goal is not to make a representational rendition of the objects …
“But my object is to put some feeling into it and make a pleasing arrangement.”
Among her inspirations is artist Paul Cézanne. Paisner participated in the exhibit because she feels a connection to the community.
“I used to live in Cherry Hill,” she noted. “And I used to teach in Cherry Hill. So I feel very tied to the community. And I just think it’s a worthy organization. And I decided to try my hand at it.”
Sharon Paisner earned first place in the exhibit. She was a teacher in Cherry Hill whose courses included art.
Marjorie Levy, whose abstract piece placed second, is no stranger to the Art Blooms exhibit.
The township resident of 40 years and former teacher has participated in the show since 2017. She has also exhibited at the Camden County Senior Citizens Juried Art Contest and Exhibition and at the Perkins Center for the Arts. She first dabbled in art about 10 years ago, after retiring, and sold her first piece at an Art Blooms event.
But her passion developed in third grade.
“I’ve always loved it, since I’ve received my first set of pastels,” she recalled. “But I became an English teacher, and now that I’m retired, I have time to pursue my art, which I like, I love. And I’m really drawn to abstract and color and mixed media.
“Those are the things that I really like.”
For Art Blooms, Levy was inspired by an abstract painting class at the Perkins Center that had some Asian inspiration.
“The lines on the side, above and on the side have two straight red and pink Eastern influences, red and pink lines,” Levy pointed out, “that (the judge) felt (were) Asian inspired, Japanese inspired.”
Marjorie Levy, a township resident for 40 years, took second place in the exhibit.
Seventh-grader Varanya Basu, who received an honorable mention at Art Blooms, said the intent behind her piece was to show people trying to find light in a cold environment.
“Everyone was trying to get it in different ways,” she related. “Someone was trying to hand them a rose; other people were threatening them. Just various ways to try and get it. And this person had, it’s sort of somber, because they could keep and stay safe themselves or they could hand it over to one of these people. And I wanted what the mask represented to be up to interpretation.”
Basu said it took her about a week to complete the piece, her second for Art Blooms. She was talked into entering by her mother, Sucharita Bhowmik, who hoped other artists there could guide her daughter.
“She loves drawing,” Bhowmik said. “She keeps drawing all the time. So I encouraged her.”
Members of the community tour the exhibit at Croft Farm Arts Center, a collection of more than 190 pieces.
