National Art League holds 80th annual fall exhibition

The walls and floors were full of beautiful creations and the atmosphere full of cheerful voices on Sunday as the National Art League celebrated its 80th annual fall members' exhibition.

Pieces by 86 different members of the Douglaston nonproft were on display in the friendly contest, which offered no monetary prizes but tremendous opportunities for self-expression and bragging rights. 

"There's very fine work here," said Adeline W. Jahelka, a league member since 1992. "This is the best one we've had. Everybody's improving."

"It's great as usual," added Veronica Clarke, who has been the group's treasurer for more than 25 years.

Participants worked in three distinct areas: watercolor painting; oil/acrylic painting; and other media, which included sculpture, collage, ceramics and "assemblage." Bill Merklein, who teaches sculpting and painting at the Stevenson Academy of Fine Arts in Long Island's Oyster Bay, acted as judge for the show.

There was no theme this year, so contestants could let the creativity flow into any subject they wanted.

Marc Josloff's "Parenthood - Glyptotek Museum" took first place in the watercolor division. The painting was inspired by a photo Josloff snapped of a sculpture of a woman with her children at the Glyptotek Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The lighting and art provided inspiration, but he said he was ready to being painting upon noticing a father and daughter admiring the sculpture.

It took him five weeks to create the piece, but he believes it was worth it.

"I'm very happy," he said of his first place honor. "I felt like I was giving birth."

Stuart Gleiber took the top prize in the oil/acrylic division for his painting "Paul's Bar." He said his goal for the piece was to "paint emotion."

Interested mainly in still lifes and landscapes, Gleiber went to a bar in Manhattan and took a photo of the scene. One man was sitting alone at one end of the bar, while a bunch of bottles with radiant red bottle tops rested at the other end.

"This is fabulous," the Roslyn resident said of his prize. "I never won anything before- nothing like this, anyway. And it's so nice to know that somebody felt like they liked what I liked."

Housed in a two-story brick building on Douglaston Parkway just north of Northern Boulevard, the National Art League features roughly 300 members across the Tri-State Area who gather to share their love of art and inspire each other. At the helm is Marie Marsina, who has been president since 2004.

Marsina, a Douglaston denizen, opined that the diversity of subject matter in this year's show distinguished it from those of previous years. She credited the league's teachers, who she said have led its members to new heights.

She also predicted that the artists will learn from each other and next year's exhitibition will be even better.

"The bar is raised," she said.