POINT PLEASANT BEACH — The Manasquan River Group of Artists (MRGA), a collective of artists from Ocean and Monmouth counties, held its annual reception on Saturday, featuring more than two dozen artworks by Shore artists.
The reception was held in recognition of the MRGA’s exhibit at the Point Pleasant Beach Branch of Ocean County Library, which is currently on display in the library’s meeting room. Featuring the work of 28 artists, the exhibit is a celebration of seascapes, still life and more styles, many inspired by the Jersey Shore.
Sheila Soyster, president of the MRGA, told The Ocean Star what the day is all about, explaining how the event brings together the collective work of the group in a special way.
“This exhibit at the library has been going on since January, and it goes until March 31,” said Soyster, from Point Pleasant, who herself had a painting in the show. “They’re all original artwork, and the artists had their choice of subject matter; they’re all local artists from Monmouth and Ocean counties. We had a judge come in to evaluate the work for first, second and third places, an honorable mention, and then we also had a people’s choice.”
For his first-place submission, “The Mechanic,” painter Lou Riccio of Brick reached back into his memory to paint a mechanic’s workbench, just like the one from his father’s workplace years ago.
“My father had a car dealership. In the back, he had a part-time mechanic that did various mechanical work,” he said. “I used to go back there and watch them; I thought, with all of his paraphernalia that he had there, this would make a great still life.”
Riccio explained that he physically set up a mechanic’s bench, with small details taken from memories of his father’s dealership, like gears from a junkyard, a ball peen hammer, an oily rag and a lit cigar — which, despite not being a smoker, Riccio puffed on to give the painting a more realistic, living feel.
“The last thing was that I remembered the mechanic smoking a cigar — so I said to myself, ‘Now I’ve got to go get a cigar,’ So, I went to the cigar place,” he said. “Now the thing was, I had to smoke the cigar, to get that ash on there. That was the last thing I put on the painting there, that cigar.”
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