Outstanding New Artist

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Outstanding New Artist

This is a first - I was named "Outstanding New Artist" at The Mary O. Fritchie Outdoor Juried Fine Art Show which was held on the Westhampton Beach Village Green this past weekend. "Juried" to me has come to mean that a jury reviews your work and booth display before a show and then decides whether or not you will participate. All of the shows I've been participating in this summer have been juried in that way, and I've felt truly honored to have been selected amongst so many talented artists in so many different mediums. This, however, was the first show in which I've participated where judges awarded prizes in a limited number of categories to a handful of artists. So wasn't I surprised and thrilled when the representatives from the Chamber of Commerce stopped in my booth, congratulating me for being selected "Outstanding New Artist".

Although this show is heralded as the 43rd annual Mary O. Fritchie Show that only marks when Fritchie took "lead in orchestrating the annual summer assembly of artists in Westhampton Beach". In fact, the assembly of artists began in the summer of 1937 and probably occurred several undocumented years before that. Visiting artists would gather with "their paints, easels and canvases on the sidewalks along Main Street for a weekend in August to share their techniques." Each year word spread of the informal gathering of talent and more and more artists started appearing every year. "By the early 1950s, Main Street in Westhampton Beach became dotted with artists clad in paint smocks and their talented hands holding paint brushes dabbling in watercolor and acrylic or fervently etching in pencil or ink." The shows continued to grow each year with the involvement and structure of the local business community and chamber of commerce. "By the 1960s, Westhampton Beach had become a destination for those desiring fine art." The caliber of this annual art show event has escalated each year "as the jury selection process has become more stringent and competitive thus gaining higher notoriety as one of the most respected art shows in the Northeast". This year the Chamber reported that over 140 artists displayed their work during the two day show.