Patt Baldino, Tit Mouse and Lemons, oil on panel, 12 x 24"

Steve Scheuring, who achieved Elected Member status after his painting Tastes of Home placed first in the last online show, will be showing a similarly complex oil painting dense with tightly-rendered objects. The large format Berks County is an overtly nostalgic piece depicting items he associates with his Pennsylvania hometown. “Berks County is the childhood home of Taylor Swift and Keith Haring,” he says, providing context for some of the imagery in the work. Foods like scrapple, ‘dippy eggs’, pretzels and ring bologna get a nod, as do brands like Wixon’s Shoo Fly Pie, Goode’s potato chips, Godiva chocolate, 5th Avenue candy bars and Reading beer. Also represented on the canvas are notable local figures like pro golfer Betsy King, football great Lenny Moore, baseball’s Rocky Colavito, boxer Steve Little and author John Updike. Scheuring explains that Reading, Pennsylvania’s skyline is defined by a Japanese-style pagoda that sits atop Mt. Penn, a motif repeated throughout the painting. “The Berks County area has a lot to be proud of,” says Scheuring. “I wanted to celebrate [that] with this painting.”

Galal Ramadan, Rosaries’ Salesgirl, colored pencil, 25 x 20"

Longtime AAPL Elected Member Lana Privitera’s show piece is a watercolor depicting three ripened pears arranged around a light-dappled basket. She took the reference photos for Out of Confinement several years ago, hoping to use them eventually in one of her still lifes. “The moment I saw the pears’ reference photo again at the end of the pandemic, I immediately visualized it as a painting about the historic confinement—or any kind of enforced confinement,” says Privitera. “It was easy for me to compare mentally the pale, easily-bruised pears to a human trio that had endured life indoors for many months. The rosy cheeks of the pears basking in the sunshine and the overall warmth of the painting serves to reinforce the idea that you should never lose hope, and that there’s always light at the end of the proverbial tunnel.”

Lana Privitera, Out of Confinement, watercolor, 14 x 21"

With a wide variety of subject matter and range of price points, AAPL’s Spring Member Exhibition promises to have something for every collector. Artworks in the show can be viewed and purchased online at aaplinc.org. Sold pieces will be shipped directly from the artist’s studio to the buyer.

Steve Scheuring, Berks County, oil, 36 x 72"

American Artists Professional League Spring Members Exhibition