MEDIA CONTACT:

Vanessa Ormsby, RCA Communications Manager

(361) 320-2064 / vanessa@rockportartcenter.com

 56th ANNUAL ROCKPORT ART FESTIVAL HONORS TWO ARTISTS WHO HAVE MASTERED THEIR CRAFT

Patsy Lindamood named 2024 event’s Master Artist;

former Master Artist Anita Diebel honorary chair for Art Auction Gala

ROCKPORT, Texas (May 15, 2024) — Rockport Center for the Arts (RCA) is honoring two award-winning artists in conjunction with this year’s Rockport Art Festival, now in its 56th year: artist Patsy Lindamood as the July 6-7 Rockport Art Festival Master Artist and former master artist Anita Diebel (2003) as the honorary chair for event’s Art Auction Gala on July 5.

Patsy Lindamood is the 32nd artist to be honored as master artist, a tradition that began in 1993 with Harold Phenix. As master artist, Lindamood will provide an original piece of art to the annual Art Auction Gala, which features work from previous master artists as well, including Diebel. Held each year since 1993 as the kickoff to Art Fest, the sold-out patron event takes place in an air-conditioned big top tent on the Festival Grounds and includes several auctions, live music, and a catered dinner.

“From time to time, we honor an artist or patron whose engagement with the organization is significant and steadfast,” said Luis Purón, executive director for RCA. “Since the 1980s, Anita Diebel has exemplified the character and tenacity of a Rockport Center for the Arts supporter. She has served the organization in every facet possible — art festival exhibitor and master artist, staff member, donor, board member, and member of committees including strategic planning that charted the course for the development of the new campus.”

Recognized for her sensitive water media and collage paintings that resonate with layers of color and texture, Diebel has been honored with awards at local, national and international levels. Her paintings hang in private and corporate collections throughout the U.S. and abroad, and she has attained signature status in Texas Watercolor Society, Southwest Watercolor Society and Western Federation of Watercolor Society.

An intuitive painter, Diebel works in both transparent watercolor and acrylic. Using many thin layers of pigment to build the foundation of her paintings, brushing, pouring, guiding the pigments and blending the hues, she allows each work to take her on a voyage of discovery, brushing, pouring, guiding the pigments and blending, using whatever it takes to achieve the results she seeks. Diebel is the proprietor and operator of Anita Diebel Gallery located adjacent to RCA.

“I am fortunate to live by the sea and like the sea, my art ebbs and flows, ever-changing,” said Diebel. “Nature infuses my work; it is the one constant, whether working representational or abstract. I now try to paint not just the bird but rather his flight, not just the tree but the wind whistling through the palms. I am a spontaneous painter, reacting to the moment while relying on a rich tapestry of experience in art and life.”

Patsy Lindamood has achieved signature status in the Society of Animal Artists, Artists for Conservation, and the International Guild of Realism with her wildlife work, and as this year’s master artist for Art Fest, she will host a solo show, Rockport Coast Lines, presented by Tito’s Handmade Vodka, June 21–August 18 in RCA’s H-E-B Gallery.

“Patsy’s artwork reflects immense talent and sincere love of the region,” said Purón. “As a regular participant in Rockport Art Fest and Birds in Art, her work speaks to the heart of what makes Rockport special and we’re pleased to honor her as our 2024 Master Artist.”

A late starter as an artist, Lindamood decided in 2004 to become a professional, which she continues to pursue along with her career as a CFO/CTO/CISO for a credit union. In addition to her day job, she typically spends  30 to 40 or more hours a week in her Huntsville, Texas, studio creating new work, on her computer vetting and composing her photographic reference, or engaged in the business of promoting and supporting her art. 

Never previously drawn to painting landscapes, Lindamood more recently developed a series of Texas panoramas featuring grain silos, grain elevators and disintegrating homesteads, vistas comprised of a broad range of values, populated with subjects that are consummate examples of strong lines and shapes. 

“For years, my subject matter was principally wildlife and human portraiture,” said Lindamood. “But a couple of years ago on one of my birding expeditions, other elements of the local Texas environment overran my focus on the avian population of the area.

“Absent the romance of color, working in shades of grey is like telling a short story rather than writing a novel.” 

For more information on Rockport Center for the Arts, or to purchase tickets for the Rockport Art Festival, please visit rockportartcenter.com or call (361) 729-5519.

 About the Rockport Art Festival Master Artist Tradition

The first Rockport Art Festival was hosted in 1969 and has grown to become one of the most respected, and longest-running juried art festivals in the United States. Every year since 1993, a diverse committee of artists and art patrons gathers to select one master artist for the annual event, the first of whom was master artist Harold Phenix. This select group of chosen artists are known for their achievements in the Arts, for their engagement and contributions to the Rockport Center for the Arts, and for their ability to capture the coastal aesthetic that is uniquely Rockport and that is recognized across the State of Texas.

 About Rockport Art Festival Master Artists, 1993–present

1993 Harold Phenix †; 1994 Steve Russell (Founding member of the Rockport Art Association, Inc.); 1995 Al Barnes †; 1996 Herb Booth †; 1997 Jesus Moroles †; 1998 Evelyn Atkinson; 1999 Ricardo Rivera †; 2000 Kay Barnebey; 2001 Jim Offeman; 2002 Flint Reed; 2003 Anita Diebel; 2004 Thom Evans †; 2005 Carol Koutnik; 2006 Hal McCaskill; 2007 Nanci Barnes; 2008 Teresa Justice; 2009 Lisa Baer Frederick; 2010 Shirley Hughes Blackman; 2011 Betty Shamel; 2012 Bruce Bitter; 2013 Bonnie Lou Prouty; 2014 Pamela Fulcher; 2015 Chance Yarbrough; 2016 Joey Blazek; 2017 Barb Robinson; 2018 Debbie Stevens; 2019 Angalee DeForest; 2020 V… Vaughan; 2021 Robin Hazard; 2022 Jeffrey Neel McDaniel; 2023 Kent Ullberg; and 2024 Patsy Lindamood 

Legend: † Deceased

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