In our October exhibition, we are thrilled to bring together two artists who are Southern Delaware favorites. Laura Hickman, of Bethany Beach, and Steve Rogers, of Lewes, share a love for Tangier Island and have based the entire show on its scenic beauty. Tangier Island sits in the Chesapeake Bay, 12 miles from the nearest mainland port, and has been home to watermen for hundreds of years and people of the Pocomoke Nation long before that. A maze of waterways lined with quaint cottages and dilapidated docks flows through the island, breaking it into a thousand pieces. With a population of less than 700 and a remote location, Tangier seems to have frozen in time. Locals mostly get around on golf carts and bicycles because the roads are not large enough to accommodate cars. Sadly, this Chesapeake Bay treasure is quickly slipping into the ocean and will have to be abandoned in fewer than 50 years.

   Laura Hickman, primarily a pastel artist, was born in Milford, Delaware, and grew up on Fifth Street in Bethany Beach. She was profoundly influenced by her life at the beach which is evident in her artwork. She attended Hood College in Frederick, Maryland, graduating with a B.A. in Art and went on to receive an M.F.A. from the University of Delaware in Printmaking and Painting and Drawing. She taught for several years at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore and then at The Savannah College of Art and Design. Hickman’s hometown beckoned for her return in 1988, when she realized her dream of becoming a full-time artist. In the pastel pieces created for the exhibition at the Peninsula Gallery, Laura depicts the serene humdrum scenes of Tangier Island, yet in a playful and vivid style. It’s as if idyllic childhood beach memories have been plucked from your mind and brought to life in brilliant color.

     Steve Rogers has loved boats and water all his life and has centered an art career around this passion. He works in acrylics to paint traditional working boats in precise realism. These are not pampered fiberglass yachts, but hard-bitten and over-worked oystermen, crabbers, and menhaden steamers. His paintings capture the toughness and durability of everyday working boats and the beauty and terror of the weather in which they work. Steve’s depictions are incredibly accurate, down to the materials and construction of each particular type of vessel. His palette is rich with natural tones of ochre, umber, and rust set off by shadows in cool blues and stark blacks. Tangier Island has provided Steve with a treasure-trove of inspiration as it is overflowing with the textures, colors, and moods that fuel his art.