Weeks Art Gallery, Baltimore Woods Nature Center
July 5th through August 31st, 2011
Public Reception: Saturday, July 9th, 2-4pm

Watercolor and photography by artists Margaret Manring and Diana Whiting will be exhibited and for sale at the Weeks Art Gallery, Baltimore Woods Nature Center, 4007 Bishop Hill Road, Marcellus, from July 5th through August 31st, 2011. The public is invited to a reception for the artists on Saturday, July 9th, from 2 to 4pm. The gallery is open Monday through Friday, 9am–4pm, and Saturday 10m–4pm, closed Sundays. There is no charge for parking and admittance. The gallery is open to the public.

Working in the very different media of watercolor and photography, these two artists take the viewer into the often fascinating and always compelling natural world. Manring describes the inspiration she derives from nature when approaching her watercolor painting: “I paint what moves me. Mostly I am looking at the way light moves over color and form and the many rhythms in patterns. I like … trying to paint how the sunlit air smelled, how it cooled and slid down a hill or permeated a field or warmed in a chicken coop. I try to convey how I felt viewing the landscape, the (un)still life, ….”

Whiting’s passion for photography and for nature go hand in hand. Whiting explains: “Since I love nature, it is a natural fit that I bring (my) love of making photographs to the places that I spend a lot of time. I like looking for simplicity as well as finding a sense of rhythm in many of my photographs. With wildlife, I like to learn about my subjects as much as getting their photographs. My hope is to share my connection to the natural world and encourage conservation.”

The work of these two award-winning artists has been exhibited and widely published. Manring’s watercolors have been accepted on the national level in shows at Cooperstown, The Schweinfurth, and Old Forge. Whiting’s work has been recognized by the National Audubon Society and the National Wildlife Federation. These are a few of the outlets for these two accomplished artists.

Manring and Whiting work in different media, with different focus, but they are tied together by the inspiration the natural world quickens in their artist souls. Diversity in nature is described not only by the sciences—it applies to the arts. Nature inspires a unique response from each individual. Capturing this response to the natural world and expressing it using their talents in the visual arts, Manring and Whiting’s work explains the title of this shared exhibit— nature is their muse.

More information on the artists can be found at www.baltimorewoods.org and on Whiting at www.dianawhitingphotography.com.