Logo

Spring Show 2026

The Spring show is over. The show was held Friday, May 1 and Saturday, May 2 It was a fantastic show with lots of really high quality art. I hope you could make it, but if you could not get there you can see some photographs of the show here.

Before we get to the photos, here are the award winners.

Spring Show 2026 Award Winners

Best of Show Jeannette Corbett - "Tuscan Landscape" Oil
First Place Michael Bittner - "Reflection" Acrylic
Second Place Bill Dexter - "Motif #1 Gloucester" Pbotograph
Third Place Sheila Falco - "Irises and Autumn Joy" Oil
Award of Excellence Kim Ramsey - "Fruit Still Life" Colored Pencil
Award of Excellence Ruth Clark - "Snow Shower" Watercolor
Mary Saija Award Lynne Cassinari - "Rejuvenation" Oil
Nathalie Nordstrand Award Kathleen Connors - "Before the Berry" Watercolor
Popular Award Kim Ramsey - "Fruit Still Life" Colored Pencil

Once again, we hosted the Art in Bloom display in conjunction with the Garden Club.


spring 2026

RAA Artist: Beverly Cook
Garden Club Artist: Suzanne McCance



spring 2026

RAA Artist: Beverly Cook
Garden Club Artist: Liz McCarron



spring 2026

RAA Artist: Cheryl Flatley
Garden Club Artist: Ed Carver



spring 2026

RAA Artist: Cheryl Flatley
Garden Club Artist: Betty Walsh



spring 2026

RAA Artist: Holly Popeo
Garden Club Artist: Shannon Welsh



spring 2026

We had a small mini-art display again this year.



spring 2026

People enjoying the art.



spring 2026

We had a good turnout on Friday.



spring 2026



spring 2026



spring 2026



spring 2026

Jeannette won Best of Show with her painting "Tuscan Landscape"



spring 2026

Kim receiving her award.



spring 2026

Bill receiving his award.



spring 2026

Michael receiving his award.



spring 2026

Lynne receiving her award.



spring 2026

Kathleen receiving her award.



Here are the bios of the judges

Jeff Hayes

Jeff Hayes is an artist living and working in Boston, creating still-life, landscapes and portraits in contemporary realist tradition. He has been practicing the Painting-A-Day discipline since August 2006, creating one finished work every weekday, an ongoing, exciting challenge.

Jeff reports that painting is the third career in his life. The first two, as a musician and then as a developer of internet software, still breathe their influence into his work. The study of music has given him a very strong sense of rhythm, line, and balance. Most of his paintings, particularly his daily paintings, begin with a connection with a common object or scene--fundamentally something he has seen around him dozens, maybe hundreds, of times. Schooling himself through study and observation, painting quickly grew from a pastime to one of the most important elements of his life. He is currently studying figurative and still-life painting at The New England Realist Art Center in Boston. His paintings are included in nearly 100 private collections.

You can visit Jeff's web site here: http://www.jeffhayes.com/

Andrew Anderson-Bell

Native to the New England area, Andrew Anderson-Bell is a representational landscape artist painting in the medium of pastel. A graduate of Rhode Island School of Design, Andrew initially pursued graphic design and photography. While these remain passions to this day, his interest in painting in pastel was sparked by an exhibit he saw 20 years ago. The immediacy of the medium, the vibrancy of the colors and the diversity of mark making inspired him to pursue a career in pastel painting.

Where Andrew lives keeps him in daily contact with the great outdoors, his leading source for artistic inspiration. He is a lifelong summer resident of North Haven Island, Maine. When not there, he lives in Ipswich, a seaside community located on the North Shore of Massachusetts. Much of the subject matter of his pastel paintings depict familiar landscape scenes from North Haven as well as from his exploration of the other islands of Penobscot Bay. Meanwhile, the beaches, horse pastures, farmland and particularly tidal salt marsh estuaries of the north shore are also captured in his landscapes.

Although many of Andrew's pastel paintings are of recognizable locations, he is not concerned with generating an exact reproduction. Instead, he often works in the studio from memory, sketches and/or photographs using an intuitive process to create a heightened sense of place. Working in this fashion allows Andrew to avoid getting bogged down in details while promoting a more imaginative response to handling color and composition. Through his work he conveys nature's incantations: whispers of wind through bows of spruce trees, the lapping of waves against a shoreline, the distant rumble of thunder. To capture the feel and temperature of weather and nature's change in mood, he often examines the metamorphosis of daylight to dusk or calm to approaching storm. He portrays the spectrum of nature from the graceful dance of field grass to the power and fury of surf. His paintings offer the viewer the indulgence of a meditative space to contemplate the grandeur of nature and reinforce the notion that even the most solitary and tranquil moments have significance.

Learn more about Andrew at his website, https://www.anderson-bellstudio.com/




Mission Statement    About Us    Our Program    Membership    Schedule   

General Information    Archives   




Home


Search     Acknowledgements and Links

Add Sidebar Menu    





This web site and all of its content, text and images are Copyright © 2000 - Reading Art Association
All rights reserved.

Last updated May 3, 2026