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Artist Liz Lind opens her first Eastern Shore gallery in West Ocean City

     Annapolis artist Liz Lind lives by one simple philosophy.  She aspires to make people happy through her colorful paintings.  It is her pursuit of this aspiration that has made Lind, and her artwork, highly respected and collected for more than 20 years. 
 
     “I feel very lucky that people feel good when they view my work,” Lind said.  Her vibrant, intriguing expressions now have a new home in West Ocean City after Lind, who owns and operates two galleries in Annapolis, opened Liz Lind Editions on Route 611 on July 1.  

     “This is like a homecoming for us,” said Liz, whose husband, Gordon Harrington, was born and raised in Ocean City.  “I feel like this is home.  We have a lot of connections here and I used to spend my summers here as a kid, too.”

     The atmosphere of Lind’s new gallery, located in Unit 110 at the Decatur Business Center, is much like her paintings – fun, lively, energetic, bright and cheerful.  Whimsical wall colors of Caribbean Blue and Lime Green Citrus resonate positive emotions with the very inside of the 1,200-square foot showroom.  Not lost in this intense infusion of color is the fact that the gallery’s look also represents Liz’s compassionate and upbeat personality. 

     “I want people to feel like everyday can be a sunny day.  I know that sounds corny, but it’s true,” Liz said.  “I want to invoke feelings of wellbeing and happiness.  There is enough doom and gloom on the news.  I think there are plenty of things o be happy about in our daily lives.”

     The gallery, opened weekdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and later on the weekends, also includes unique gifts that compliment Liz’s work and a custom framing shop. 

     Liz’s subject matter ranges from posies to pools and steam ships to landscapes and continues to change based on her curiosity and lifelong examination of her surroundings.  The finished pieces are not just crafts of fine art, but expressions of her raw, creative energy and childlike imagination. 

     “I am one of those people who is really curious about everything,” she said.  “It seems like my mind never runs out of ideas.  I know some artists who strain themselves and have mental blocks as a result.  I started keeping little notebooks of ideas so  these ideas are there when I have time to get to them.”

  Liz describes her productivity as prolific, usually painting a series of works simultaneously.  This technique allows her to be more creative that if she were focusing on a single piece.

     “It seems like when I will start to work one piece, perhaps a commission, my mind wanders and I envision other things I want to do,” Liz said.  “That’s how I work and I think that it assists me in my creativity.  A lot of times things come together in that way.

Lind, who has been trained in classic painting, considers her style to be expressionistic in nature – a method that she won’t soon deviate from.

     “Like a lot of artist, I have come to the point where I want to express things in their simplest forms,” Liz said.  “I like to express energy and movement and I think that comes through in my work.  People can feel something when they look at a piece.  You can tell that I m not interested in exact representation, but more interested in how a person feels when they look at my work.”

     Liz and Gordon are the proud parents of two young boys, Parker, 9, and Christian, 6.  Each has a multitude of budding interests, and like their mother, art is a talent that seems to be passed from generation to generation.  

     “They are artists and army men and all kinds of things.  They are great kids,” Liz said.  “I have always been interested in art.  Maybe it’s genetic in some people.  There are a lot of artists on my mother’s side of the family, and I was fortunate to receive some of it.”

     “Liz, who has sold as many as 500 original paintings and thousands of prints, said she is looking forward to meeting many more of the local residents she described as “classy who live in the greater Ocean City area.  Her fondness for the people and surroundings are reasons why Liz said she and her family will probably relocate here permanently someday.

     “They are some of the nicest people I have ever met in my life.  I consider them great friends,” Liz said of the locals she has met through her husband.  “There are just some wonderful people down here.  I love it here.”

~Written by Jon Westman