61st Armonk Outdoor Art Show

The Armonk Outdoor Art Show, (OAOS) now in its 61st year, returns to 205 Business Park Drive in Armonk on September 30 and October 1 from 10am to 5pm. Rain or shine. The show  benefits the Friends of the North Castle Public Library, and consistently ranks among the top fine art and design shows in the country. You can get familiar with the exhibitor’s work on the OAOS website, and link to individual artist’s sites or even contact them if you want to browse or shop ahead of the show.

Approximately 140 juried artists will present work in a broad range of art, including Fine Crafts, Mixed Media, Painting, Printmaking/Drawing/Pastels, Sculpture, Photography/Digital Art, and Wearable Art. Personal interaction with artists provides added perspective and appreciation.

Visitors can enjoy a large selection of food and beverages, including beer & wine. There is a Family Activities tent for free interactive arts and crafts projects for children. Local art studios will offer engaging lessons and projects throughout both days.

Painting

The show will feature 37 painters from as far away as Albuquerque, New Mexico’s Ronna Katz to Armonk’s own Liz Green who offer a wide variety of abstracts, figures, landscapes and still lifes in acrylics, oils and watercolors. Perennial favorites Ummarid “Tony” Eitharong and Jennifer Ardolino will both return. If you are a fan of abstracts, check out Soo Chang’s geometrics (shown above) in muted colors perfect for library, living room or office. We like Rockville Center’s Kathy Maher’s Blue Intersection (pictured here) and others from her Streetscapes collection for the most fun room in your house. If you would like a piece of art that combines streetscapes that look like abstracts, check out Sleepy Hollow’s Alan Garry’s oil on graphite, aerial views of Venice.

Mixed Media

Mixed Media always offers the most fun artwork and this year’s collection of 27 artists will not disappoint. Beginning with Armonk’s own Evan Lorberbaum who exhibits under the name ELO – his ELO, Journey from 2017 is one of our favorite works from any artist exhibiting at the show. Pictured here, his 2023 Circle of Life. The art world can never get enough pixillated celebrities, and if you agree, check out Jennifer Lashbrook’s paint chip art collages of Marilyn Monroe, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Frida Kahlo, Andy Warhol, JFK, The Beatles and Kiss. For more quirky portrait (and RBG) stuff check out Derek Christiansen’s license plate portraits of Jackie Robinson, Serena Williams, Eminem and, of course, RBG.

Photography

Every game room and sports bar in America needs a tail fin photo of a two-tone yellow and white ’55 Chevy. And Dan Oleski’s collection of head and tail lights of classic cars from Porsches and Cadillacs to a yellow and white VW microbus parked in front of a yellow and white Laguna Beach house can fill any space you have in the room. If you are more of a boat person than a car person or you are designing for your beach house, check out Daniel Jones’ boat hull photographs and his By the Sea collection of landscapes. Don’t miss his classic beach pic of two ladies fixing their hair on Coopers Beach in South  Hampton. Andrew Sovjani has some great city scapes – check out his 25 Seconds at the Met. Erik Saulitis is your guy for dance prints. And Caroline Christie is your equine photographer.

Printmaking, Drawing & Pastels

Looking for some Warhol or Robert Rauschenberg inspired prints? You will want to make your way to Dane Shue’s booth. Especially if you are in the market for Queen Elizabeth, Audrey Hepburn pop art. Also Ray Charles, The Lone Ranger and a magnificent 30 X 48 painting of The Magnificent Seven on horseback. Michael Nemcich offers  one of a kind prints (pictured here) of mixed media abstracts using paste, string, palm hair, fabric, paper, wallpaper, and callagraph plates. While Robin Lauersdorf handles the fine art drawings of pandas on a marshmallow mountain. And for the recent graduate, University drawings of Cornell, University of Michigan, Northwestern and more.

Sculpture

Nineteen sculptors will exhibit mostly small format sculpture at the show. Marlene Rose who we have featured before and who now exhibits in ten galleries from Aspen to Fort Lauderdale, will return with her fabulous blown glass Buddhas, butterflies and abstracts. For more opaque sculpture, we like Hiroshi Nakayama’s fire glazed stone (pictured here.) And Andrea Mulcahy’s fluid designs of welded steel rods. For outdoor sculpture for your yard check out Drew Klutz’s kinetic sculptures. Especially if you like art that moves.

Wearable Art

Now for some serious fun it’s on to the wearable art. Which means Shibumi silk scarves from Richard Borden and Patricia Disantis. Ladies scarves, shawls and jackets (pictured here) influenced by the spiritual powers of Buddhism from Bounkhong Signavong. Bracelets, earrings and leaf necklaces from Wendy Lin. Bangle bracelets from Jay Nielsen Jewelry. Beach pebble and diamond earrings and bracelets from Amy Hudson. And organic jewelry from Lula Castillo, who was profiled in The New York Times last November, and works exclusively with organic materials from the Amazon rain forest. Including citrus rinds, tagua nuts and lima beans.

Fine Crafts

“Jaipur Mbola” by Carrie Gustafson

You can’t have an art show without crafts. Starting with the raku pottery, the 16th century Japanese pottery firing process that Bob Green of Conway, MA  makes in his small glass kiln at temperatures over 1900 degrees. We also like David Benyosef’s blown glass pottery. David, who studied at the Corning Museum of Glass is a head gaffer at the acclaimed Pilchuck Glass School. Carrie Gustafson’s glass blown (pictured here) vessels and light fixtures are adorned with etched and sandblasted patterns. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, she also has studied at Corning and Pilchuck.