In the documentary Bayshore Artists: Celebrating Our Sense of Place, local artists share their concerns for the future preservation of this important but fragile natural and cultural landscape. Seeing the beauty of the local landscape through their eyes will heighten the appreciation of these aesthetic values for the viewer. Our marshes are a wonderful vehicle for describing and depicting the ever-changing subtleties of light, color, atmosphere, and nature itself, for the marsh is indeed the wellspring of life.

Through the centuries painters, sculptors, writers, glass blowers and carvers have sought to capture the beauty of wetlands and accompanying uplands. Today there exists a body of works that attests to these accomplishments.

The NJN / Citizens United co-production Bayshore Artists: Celebrating Our Sense of Place will highlight a multifaceted group of highly accomplished artists and their works. The mediums of expression include oil and gouache, and glass. Louis Presti of NJN and Jane Morton Galetto of Citizens United are the co-producers of this production.

The Artists - The following artists are highlighted in Bayshore Artists: Celebrating Our Sense of Place.

Don Friel is Studio Manager of the Wheaton Village Glass Factory. Don’s creations fuse his impressions of nature’s artistic images into superb forms, executed with sophistication and skill. Some of his best known works include a series of wetland images. (link to Wheaton Village; http://www.wheatonvillage.org )

Belva Ann Prycl is a painter of the marshes and meadows of the South Jersey landscape, which she has called home for over 50 years. She is recognized throughout the region for her work in oils and watercolors as well as for being a teacher of private painting and drawing classes at her studio in Greenwich, NJ. Her work is primarily concerned with portraying atmosphere, light, and color, as well as the expansive skies that are familiar elements of her daily experience near the bayshores. She divides her time between her love of painting and her commitment to preserving the environment.

Glenn Rudderow is an accomplished painter. He has lived and worked in Southern NJ since 1968. Glenn has painted the marshes and uplands of Delaware Bay and the surrounding waterways with an emotion and color sense uniquely his own. Glenn has won numerous state and national awards. Currently he lives and works in Hopewell Township in Cumberland County and is an instructor in painting and drawing at The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. His work will be important in showing the natural landscape as well as man’s presence in that landscape. (link to his website; http://www.rudderowfineart.com/ )

Pat Witt is well known as the “Wetlands Painter”. Other titles have been bestowed upon her with critical acclaim, such as “Marsh Painter” and “River Artist”. But being of uncommonly good “Witt”, Pat proclaimed herself a “Ditch Master”. You can argue her title, but the power and quality of her paintings is indisputable. Pat’s work is only surpassed by her enthusiasm for sharing her love of the ever-changing marshes with her students and friends. Beyond her depictions of local environs, her most important contribution has been her mentoring a legacy of preservation and artistic skills among her students.

A local acoustic quartet known as the Snake Brothers will provide the music score for the film. The Snake Brothers perform at a variety of bayshore events and festivals. Their music will serve as an auditory backdrop that will transport viewers into a mood that opens them to a greater appreciation of the artists’ interpretations in both works and words.

A special note of thanks to all our friends at NJN who so enthusiastically tackle the task of telling the stories of New Jersey. Here’s to the administration and staff of NJN, New Jersey’s Public Television Station: BRAVO!

Documentaries Co-Produced by Citizens United and NJN: Down Jersey Bayshore Artists: Celebrating Our Sense of Place Constance Jost 1951-1998 can be purchased from: NJN, Video Services, CN 777, Trenton, NJ 08625-0777 609-777-5093 Each video is $19.95 plus a s/h cost of $4 plus 6% for NJ residents and the following art galleries: ARTS of Down Jersey, PO Box 151, 73 Market Street, Salem, NJ 08079 856-935-6922 – over the counter $20 Riverfront Renaissance Center for the Arts, High Street, Millville, NJ 08332 856-327-4500 - over the counter $20. (Jost tape $10)