The Race to the Races
Exhibit dates: October 3 - November 30, 2013
Opening reception: October 3 from 5-7pm
Opening with a reception and Main Street ART Walk from 5-7pm on October 3 and running through Novemeber 30, The Morin Gallery at The Arts Center In Orange celebrates the Montpelier Hunt Races with an exhibit of race inspired paintings and drawings by artists Kelly Wilkinson Coffin, Kitty Dodd, Donna Roper Doyle, Alana Fuller, Susan Garnett, Clinton Helms, Elaine Hurst, Sandy Lawrence, Sue Linthicum, Lee Nixon, Chee Kludt Ricketts and Martha Strawther.Each of the gallery's exhibiting artists competed in "The Race to the Races" contest to be selected for the 2013 Montpelier Hunt Race poster. The winning work by artist Sandy Lawrence will be on display until Race Day on November 2. Lawrence's highly detailed pencil drawing shows Marion duPont Scott’s horse, Battleship, leading over Becher’s Brook in the Grand National on March 25, 1938.
This year marks the 75th anniversary of his Grand National win which put him down in the record books as the first American bred and American owned horse to win the Grand National. He is still the smallest horse to ever win, with the youngest jockey, Bruce Hobbs who was only 17. This win catapulted Marion duPont Scott and her Montpelier Racing stable into international fame.Also in the gallery, paper mache horse sculpture by The Big Head Brigade (a U.V.A. based artist collective making papier-mâché capgrossos (big heads) using traditional Spanish methods), and Barbara Berne Smith's bas relief interpretation of the Montpelier Hunt Race.
Concurrent Orange Main Street satellite exhibits:Paintings by Kelly Wilkinson Coffin at Virginia National Bank - 102 E. Main Street,Eleszabeth McNeel Photography at The Light Well Restaurant - 110 E. Main Street,Susan Carter Photography at Law Offices of Sean D. Gregg - 111 E. Main Street,Paintings by Michelle Powell at Holladay House B&B - 155 W. Main StreetPaintings by Sandra Massey Forbush at Frank Hardy, Inc. Realtors - 132 East Main StreetThe exhibit and Art Walk are free and the public is invited thanks to the generous sponsorship of the Montpelier Steeplechase Foundation and the Orange Downtown Alliance.