LANCASTER, PA.- The Demuth Museum announces its biggest Invitational exhibition to date, with over fifty artists participating. The 2013 exhibition schedule will kick off with the annual Demuth Invitational exhibition, showcasing the work of 52 contemporary artists from Lancaster and the surrounding region who have been invited to exhibit new works based on a given theme. This year’s theme is rooted in Charles Demuth’s continued interest in landscape painting which he returned to again and again throughout his artistic career.

While pursuing his training at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Demuth participated in summer excursions to the artists’ colony of New Hope, PA. Demuth’s many watercolors of the canals and river’s edge are done with a quick and loose brush stroke inspired by the color palette and technique of the Pennsylvania Impressionists. Demuth went on to travel abroad and rendered the coast of France in the bright colors favored by the Fauves, a group of painters led by Matisse and Derain. However, after traveling to Bermuda in 1917, Demuth’s landscapes began to develop with the rest of his subject matter in his Precisionist style. Throughout all his travels and renderings of landscapes, Demuth consistently portrayed his own experience of the landscape, so we are asking this year’s artists to create a landscape scene depicting either Demuth’s beloved Lancaster county or another place they’ve visited.

The artists participating in this year’s exhibition include: Kathy Abel, Michael Abel, Fred R. Albright, Eva S. Bender, Marlin Bert, Jack Bingham, Ann DeLaurentis, Casey Dixon, Reed Dixon, Paula Egolf, Paul Engleheart, Novelda Ferguson, Dorothy Frey, Milt Friedly, Bruce Fry, Jeff Geib, Claire Giblin, Susan Gottlieb, Gail Gray, Art Harrington, John Herr, Henrietta Holton-Thomas, Jon L. Johnson, Rick Kent, Jun-Cheng Liu, Paris Llanso, Robert Lyon, Carol Morgan, Robert Patierno, Richard Ressel, Peg Richards, Fred Rodger, Barry Root, Kimberly Bulcken Root, Lou Schellenberg, Brant Schuller, Mimi Shapiro, Gene Shaw, Suk Shuglie, Ellen Slupe, Judy W. Smith, Freiman Stoltzfus, Teri Traner, Eric Weeks, Linda Weidman, Christine Welch, Dick Whitson, Steve Wilson, J.D. Wissler, Jerome Wright and Jean Wertz Zaun. All works will be for sale.